The Revelries of the Hyne

The Revelries of the Knight

Part one.

By Andromache

Disclaimer-ish nonsense:

I do not own Final Fantasy 8, therefore I am making no money off of this. Neither do I own The Bacchae. Euripides does, but he has been dead for quite some time, so I doubt that he cares.

This story is based off of Euripides' tragedy, The Bacchae, about the effects of warring against the gods. Pentheus, the young king of Thebes, refuses to recognize the fact that Dionysus is a god even though the wine god is also his cousin by blood. Dionysus takes issue with this, and well, the ending is not happy for everybody.

This is also in the play/script format. I hope you like my rendition of it. Enjoy!

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Seifer: The Sorceress' Knight returns to the Garden of the SeeDs. I am Seifer, who was chosen by the Sorceress Ultimecia to achieve time compression. Close by here, I see the orphanage where I was raised. It is still empty of children whose fates were woven together in order to defeat the evil sorceresses. All praise to Edea, who watched over the children then and now. But it was the Sorceresses that made us who we are today.

I come from the Estharian desert, lonely Tear's Point, and the high mountains of the eastern continent. I come from Balamb's sparkling sea and Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell. First of the Gardens, I have come to this floating Balamb Garden, for my own classmates have forsaken me and the Sorceress. They have rebelled against the influence of the Sorceress and decried her servant.

Now Headmaster Cid has given over the leadership of the fated children to Squall Leonhart, who opposes following the Sorceress. He thrusts her away from his thoughts and refuses her gifts. Therefore, I mean to reveal myself and the glory of the Sorceress to the SeeDs of the Garden. If I should succeed here, the rest of the Gardens will follow suit and praise the power of the Hyne's Children. If they should take arms against me, I will lead my armies of revelers against them in battle. This is why it is I who has been sent instead of the Sorceress herself. I have driven the women out of the Garden to join the revelers already rejoicing at the site of the Lunar Cry on the Centra continent.

Followers of the Sorceress, strength of mysteries, my own cohorts in the power of the Sorceress! Raise the cry of praise to Ultimecia. Come to Balamb Garden and bring the SeeDs out from it with your cries. As for myself, I will join the rites of the Sorceress' servants and dance with them.

(Exit Seifer. Enter Chorus made of girls from all over the world including many exotic-looking women from the northern reaches. The mark at the beginning of a line denotes a new speaker.)

-Is there any unbeliever in the Garden? Are there any at all? Let them hide from us as we sing the glories of the Sorceress in the old, old way.

-Oh, blessed is he who is chosen to bear the message of the Sorceress to these unwilling souls! In his own heart, he knows the sacred rites of the Sorceress and throws his head back in ecstasy. He crowns himself in the knowledge of the secrets of the Hyne's Child.

-On ye revelers, on ye servants of the Sorceress! Bring home the truths of the Sorceress to the SeeDs so that they may dance with us.

-And Garden, parent of the Knight, dance, yourself, with us! Crown your head with ivy and dress in the costume of the rites! Soon all the land will join us!

-Our leader is in the plains of the Centra as we speak! He hunts the monsters and kills them in cannibalistic grace. He is Seifer, Knight of the Sorceress! The ground flows with milk, honey, and wine, and the air is thick with the smoke of Estharian incense. He cries loudly and holds his gunblade aloft, "Oh! on ye revelers, the glory of the northern reaches! Glorify the Sorceress in the ancient ways!" Then indeed does the reveler dance and cry out like a light-footed foal alongside its mother in the pastures of Galbadia!

(Enter Edea)

Edea: Who is at the steps of our Garden? Call Cid from his office and tell him that Edea seeks him! There is much that is happening here, and he knows what it is. He knows the secrets that I myself know, and we must follow the prophecy to the letter.

(Enter Cid)

Cid: Beautiful Edea, my wife! I knew it was you even before you called me here.

Edea: The Sorceress' Knight has returned to the Garden, and I feel that there is no way that we can stop him this time.

Cid: How so? We've done it before.

Edea: He has the power of the Sorceress within himself now. Ultimecia chose him wisely.

Cid: If there is no other way....

(Enter Squall)

Squall: I happen to leave the Garden for a mere journey, and when I return, the women have all gone to dance and celebrate the revelries of the Sorceress. I heard that they lay in wait on the plains for the skulking thieves to come and lie with them in beds of woven grass. They drink the nectar of the Hyne or so they claim, covering up for the fact that they became harlots in the name of the Sorceress.

They say that the Knight has returned to the area to seek his revenge. I say, "Let him!" Let him do his worst. We are impenetrable to the so-called glories of the Sorceress' Knight. This is another one of your plots, Edea, or should I say Ultimecia? You possess our matron again to wreak havoc on all of us.

Chorus Leader: Oh, what blasphemies against the Sorceress' own chosen Knight! You will not live to see the end of the day, sir, if you do not repent of your rash words!

Edea: Squall, my son, do not be harsh to me. Ultimecia is not in control of me now. This time, what the Knight is doing is right!

Squall: Lies, all of it. Go play the part of a reveler then, dear Edea, for you will not speak to me like that again.

(Exit Edea and Cid)

Chorus: Oh, Hyne, maker of us all, turn the heart of this cold man. He does not know what he says or what he does. You rejoice in the festivals every year. Why should this one be any different?

(Enter Irvine)

Irvine: Squall, leader of this Garden, I have grave news to tell you of the revelers.

Squall: Speak up, man, and tell me. I do not have all day.

Irvine: Certainly, commander.

I was out with some fellow SeeDs patrolling the area around the revelry when we saw the main groups of them sleeping peacefully on the sun-drenched plain. Three groups of women slumbered there, the first led by your own Rinoa, the second by the virtuous Quistis, and the third by my happy Selphie. When they awoke, it was a beautiful sight to see them. They were all women there, and not a single man lay there with them.

They began their dances once they had all fully woken up, and I, thinking to bring them back down, leapt from my hiding place and grabbed at Rinoa, who then shouted, "Follow me, revelers! These men seek to defile the sacred rites of the Sorceress!"

Panicking, we fled past a lumbering herd of toramas, rare to our sight. We heard the snapping of jaws and bone behind us, and I turned to see the women, our Rinoa, Quistis, and Selphie leading them, tearing apart the vicious toramas with their bare hands. One held a cub's legs, one half of the creature in each hand, and another tore the entrails from a female. Lastly, a group fell upon a proud male, and when they were done, the creature lay in a bloody lake made by its own blood and flesh.

Please, Squall, accept the revelries of the Sorceress of only to prevent this from happening to the rest of us as well. We were able to escape because of the herd of toramas and nothing else. Please, act wisely.

(Exit Irvine)

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Author's Note:

Well, I was bored this morning and decided to see what I could do. This is the result. I have kept as faithful as I could to the original play, and thus nearly everything that happened here happened in The Bacchae. Read the original of you can.

Andromache