As the rest of the party left reluctantly, Porom began to think maybe it had been a mistake to do this so hastily. She had of course remembered it was permanent to turn yourself to stone even when she had the idea, but she'd forgotten she'd still be concious. She had remembered she and Palom could talk to each other with thoughts alone if they were able to really concentrate, and since being petrified means there isn't much else to do, concentrating was easy enough.
'It might have been a mistake. if we had said to Cecil we could have had two of them volunteer to do it instead.' Palom agreed.
'Well, there's not much point dwelling on it now. Remember what The Elder taught us about Status Changes? Self inflicted ones can be only reversed by yourself or a skiller healer.' She said.
'Duh, but I turned myself back easy after I turned myself into a pig. '
Porom remembered that. They thought he had vanished when he'd merely been sitting in the pig pen all day watching the whole of Mysidia thinking he was missing. Many of the Black Mages had found it amusing. She had been with the rest of the village in finding it less funny.
Especially since she had woke up in the pig pen herself in the morning.
'Yes, but that kind of spell is very different from petrification. It's a fairly simple spell...'
'You can't do it unless I help you though. If it's so simple how come you can't do it alone?' palom protested.
'It's because I'm training in White magic. Oh, and in case you didn't remember, I'm also petrified.' She reminded him
'Oh yeah. Uh, you were saying about reversing it...' He asked.
'Well, if we really concentrate we can undo it. But I think since we cast it together, we need to concentrate together.'
Palom's reply was halted by the door opening, as soldiers and mages entered.
"These are the two Mysidian mages that were with Sir Cecil." a White Mage said.
"What do we do with them?" A soldier asked.
"We could put them in the gardens?" A Captain said. The White Mage seemed annoyed by this.
"We should turn them back if we can! They're only children!" She protested.
"Yes, but they turned themselves to stone. That means only they have the power to revert it." a Black Mage pointed out
"So what do you suggest? Leaving them here until they turn themselves back?" The Captain asked.
"No. put them in the gardens as you say, Captain. It will help them concentrate." Came the reply from the blue-cloaked mage.
'Did you hear that?' Porom asked.
'Yeah. Good thing we like pigeons, I think they're going to like you.' Palom said.
Porom knew if he wasn't a statue talking to her with his mind, he would be grinning.
'The pigeons are going to land on you as well.' She said.
That doesn't bother me. I did turn myself into a pig for a day, remember?'
'Yes. and then you turned me into one and tried to leave me there for a week until The Elder caught you!'
As the pair bickered, two soldiers carefully picked the petrified mages up. The trap had been switched off and they could be moved, but the walls were jammed in place, making the corridor somewhat narrower than it once had been,,,
The gardens of the castle were quite nice, Palom thought. They were maybe a little too flowery and had too many fountains, and could use a few more statues of cool things (other than him) like dragons or something, but they were nice.
'Why did they have us facing each other though?' He asked for the fifteenth time (She was keeping count). He would prefer to be watching the frog pond, not his frog-faced sister...
'We're twins, you idiot, we look almost the same!' She countered.
'Well then, I'm frog faced too.'
'No, you're not. I'm not so you can't be. She said.
'You're no fun. You were meant to say I am and then I'd say you were. He mentally pouted.
'That's just childish.' She complained.
'So? We are children. We don't have to spend all our lives trying to become mages. We're already better than most of the mages in Baron. Cecil says so.' Palom said.
'True... But The Elder says that the average mage in baron is less skilled than a Mysidian toddler.' She recalled.
'Exactly. When I was a toddler I was skilled...'
'You kept casting fire all the time after you learned it. You nearly burned down the whole village!' She protested.
I'll try harder next time... He said. Porom had a feeling he would have been grinning again.
Don't bother. Just try and think of turning yourself back to normal. She sighed.
'Then what? We're in the middle of Baron alone and we were Cecil's allies. He's not very popular in Baron just now I wouldn't think.' He pointed out, guessing wrongly.
'Good point. Maybe we should wait it out a little while...'
'Yeah. but when I turn back I'm gonna make sure there's a pigeon on my head and stand still.' Palom said.
'Why?'
'To see if it notices of course. Hey, I wonder if maybe there's a spell to turn myself into a pigeon. Or a hawk! That would be awesome.'
If she could have, she would have sighed. When her brother began to think of spells his imagination ran riot, and she had no choice but to listen as it did.
The next morning though, it seems whoever was in charge in the castle had decided to move them again. They found themselves taken inside, and surrounded by White Mages who tried to cure them. They spent a week there, wondering how the local mages were so useless.
Then one bright spark suggested that as the girl was a White Mage and the boy a Black Mage, maybe they had combined magics.
'I thought they didn't know about that.' Palom asked.
'They don't. Until we did it, it was just a myth, remember?' She reminded him.
'What'll happen if they try?'
'I don't know but it shouldn't harm us.' She said.
She had been right. It hadn't harmed them at all but had instead resulted in the effort to combine magic going wrong with the Black Mage turning himself and the White Mage to stone themselves rather than curing the twins. Luckily it had not been a deliberate petrification and was not as strong an effect as the planned petrification the twins had inflicted on themselves, but it discouraged the mages from trying again. Rather than being moved to the gardens, they were simply put back where they had been in a display of laziness.
'At least in the White Mage room there were people. This is boring.' Palom complained. They had been back in the hall a week again.
'Yes. I was learning a lot in there.' Porom said
'...How not to do it you mean?'
'Yes.'
Today though, they had visitors. Cecil had returned. Cid, Tellah, and Yang were not there, but a blonde woman, a green haired woman, a dragoon, and an Eblan ninja followed Cecil. They spoke for a few moments until they neared the statues, and could be more clearly heard.
"There's nothing that will turn them back?" The green haired woman said.
"No. If they did it themselves and deliberately, only they or a truly powerful mage can undo it." The blonde woman said.
"Leaving them here seems unfair considering that they've practically gave their lives to save yours." The dragoon said.
"I know. I think I know someone who can restore them, but leaving them here isn't going to do." Cecil said.
'I hope we're going back to the gardens.' Palom said.
'At least there's a better view there.' Porom agreed.
'Not if we're facing each other like we were before.'
'Not this again....'
It wasn't the garden, but they were facing each other. Cecil had decided to put them in the throne room on opposite pedestals.
'Throne room. When there's no king and no one coming in. This is just the kind of interesting change I was hoping for...' Palom complained sarcastically, unaware it was because the room was in disuse was the reason they were there.
'He said he knows someone who might be able to turn us back...' Porom reminded him.
'Yeah, might. Maybe we should try ourselves. We don't have anything better to do...' Palom said.
She agreed.
They tried for another week, with no results, until they had another visitor.
"Palom. Porom. what mischief have you gotten into now?" The Elder asked with a theatrical sigh as he entered the room.
He knew fine enough what they had done. But years of experience taught him it was far more amusing to tease foolish trainee mages that it was to just fix the mistake right away.
'Wait a minute, I don't get into mischief! Palom does!' Porom protested.
"And often you get caught in his wake." The Elder smiled. He was skilled enough to hear whenever they spoke like that.
He walked around the twin statues, murmuring to himself.
"Yes. This shouldn't be too difficult. I should be able to undo even your combined magics, but until I train you to undo it yourself you had best not go around turning yourself into statues again." He said.
'Can I turn Porom into a statue and not myself? ' Palom tried.
"No." The Elder said bluntly
'Aw...'
"And don't think of turning others to stone either. Or frogs. Or pigs. Some mischief is healthy but I fear perhaps you may not take magic seriously enough, whilst your sister takes it perhaps too seriously."
That pleased both twins. With the aid of selective hearing Porom took the last part as a compliment and Palom simply heard that some mischief is healthy. A few moments later both were pleased to move for the first time in many weeks. As The Elder said, it hadn't been too difficult to undo the spell.
"Remember. Until you can turn yourselves back, don't turn yourselves into anything. Especially anything that can't cast magic." The Elder told them as they returned to life.
Both of them nodded, glad to be moving again.
"But now we must go. We are needed." He told the Twins.
And shortly after that, they found themselves on a Red Wings airship heading to help Cecil once more.