And so, we begin the second phase of the epic tale about Angel and Sefi, the twin princess of Baron.

As many of you might remember, when Angel took her Paladin trial on Mount Ordeals, KluYa, her grandfather, said that an evil was coming and that she must help best it. Later, after a series of unfortunate events, Angel also received a vision from Golbez, saying that she would help to win a terrible war (without her, that war is as good as lost, he'd said), and that she would rule as a great queen one day.

Though few doubt that the Lunarians are wrong, it's been three years and Angel, who was always skeptical about the prophesies, is quickly losing heart. When last we left her, she was serving as a skilled captain of the guard and seriously doubting the occurrence of any prophesied event.

Little does she know that all of these prophesies are about to come true. A new evil is coming on swift wings, disguised as something pathetic and wussy. A war is about to break out in the overworld; one where every paladin will be needed to help, but only two are left in the world: a brave king and a cocky princess.

Now that I have your attention, a prologue is in order.

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Prologue

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The library was quiet. The only thing that moved was the light silk curtains, rustling on a breeze from the open window. Light streamed in from the window, covering everything with an ethereal, light gold sheen. The room was smaller than the other libraries in Castle Baron; the queen had adopted it as her own personal study. She particularly favored the way the light steamed in through the east-facing window during the morning and early afternoon. In one of the higher floors of a tower, it was one of the most tranquil rooms in the large, usually bustling castle.

A woman in her mid 30's walked into the room, breaking the peaceful stillness, scattering it like butterflies from a flower bed, only for it to resettle as she sank into the high-backed red chair in the corner. She sat there for some time, enjoying the sunlight and quiet.

She was a lovely individual, her eyes a light blue and her hair light brown, cut at a slant (one side started below her jaw and gradually slopped down at an angle to her mid-back; a style she'd grown attached to her in her late teens). Her unruly hair was pinned back with a gold hairpin with daffodils etched into the metal. She was clad in a simple white dress that reached the floor and a mage's robe in her favorite color: magenta pink.

For a long time she did nothing. But finally she rose from the chair and walked to one of the long bookshelves on the wall. She slowly ran her fingers along the spines of the books on her eye level. After passing nearly 20 titles, she came to a spine with no name etched into it. She pulled it from the shelf and looked its cover: soft, plain leather with no name of any kind anywhere. She flipped open the cover, which creaked with its first use, to be greeted by a blank white page. She flipped through the rest of the pages of the thick leather book and found it to be completely empty and devoid of writing.

Good, She thought.

She took a pot of black ink and a quill pen from a nearby desk, the empty book tucked under her opposite arm. She set her writing utensils down on the end table beside her big red chair. She sank down into the chair, nestling herself down against the back, and sitting cross-legged in the seat; a habit which she saved for when she was alone (it wasn't dignified for royals to sit like this, but she thought that it was comfortable). She opened the book, dipped the quill pen into the ink, and set the pen to the paper.

…………She hesitated, holding the pen just above the paper so she wouldn't stain it. She knew what she wanted to write; what she felt she must write. But she had no idea how to write it. She stayed frozen like this for another long time, trying to think of how to start her book.

"Where do I begin," She finally wrote, "to tell of the Lunarian Wars? Where do I start to tell of the courage shown in those dark times? The fights were long, and hard to win. We cried, we loved, we laughed, we lived, and we fell by the wayside to end them.

"Wars are not glorious affairs; I, Queen Angel of Baron, had to learn that the hard way. I'm not sure what exactly it was that I was expecting, but it wasn't what I got when I received my first tastes of battle. As a paladin, I thought that I was indestructible. In fact, though my experiences with wars and battles, I have grown to fear them greatly (although I'm really quite slow to admit it). If ever you think that wars are easy and that they aren't to be feared, you think again, for you think like I did.

"Despite my fear of wars, I have found myself in the middle of many battles since the Lunarian Wars. Necessary battles, fought by people who threatened my kingdom. And that is what a ruler does: defends his (or her) host from what might hurt it. From what might hurt you, dear reader."

Angel, the queen, paused and read back over the three paragraphs she'd just written. Not bad, for starters, she thought.

"Anyways, where do I begin? I think I'll begin at the beginning; that seems like a pretty good place to start.

"You know of my previous adventures, of how I became a paladin and how my sister and I resolved the Mysidian Sea Crisis. Here, I give my personal account of the second Lunarian War, and the weeks leading up to it."

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I am back! Surely you didn't think you'd be rid of ol' Freida Right so easily?

And so the second phase of Angel and Sefi's saga begins. I bet you thought that the queen who claimed the study was Rosa, didn't you. Yeah, well, I've got the first several chapters mapped out already, so it won't be as played by ear as Final Fantasy Four-and-a-Half was. In fact, I think it'll progress a lot faster; it's just going to be a question of when I'll actually be able to sit down and write. I should have enough time to run up the first two or three chapters (excluding this one) during Christmas break.

So, I've pretty much got my work cut out for me. I guess I've got a lot of work to do. Gotta go and either sleep or write; it's 11:40 at night and I'm tired, but I want to start the next chapter. We'll be picking up where I left Angel at the end of Final Fantasy Four-and-a-Half, on the castle barracks watching two travelers from Fabul approach the gate.

(yawn) Good night and good bye, my faithful friends.