Written for cricket_aria/person4 for Trick or Treat Exchange 2015. Original copy on AO3.
Maria pretended to take another sip of the fine Jidoorian wine and tried not to feel she had made a terrible mistake.
It had been easy back in the Opera House. How dare that scruffy thief even suggest putting that stuck-up general in her prized role? The woman could barely sing scales! And calling her - Maria, who had trained at the Maranda Conservatory - an "opera floozy"...at least Maria had never burned a town for insufficient grovelling to the Emperor. Besides, what were the chances this gambler would actually dare attack the Opera House? Men like that talked big, but never pulled through.
And then she'd been hauled off like a sack of flour right in the middle of the dance scene, destroying any chance of getting to show off her mastery of the famous Due Cuori duet. Maria could only hope the critics would be merciful after the way she'd pulled off Aria de Mezzo Caraterre - but it was a forlorn hope. Jidoorian critics were vicious and loved nothing more than taking down promising young actors on opening nights. The disaster would be top-of-the-page on Chocobo Warbles and The Appraiser, and maybe even The Epoch would get in on the feast...
It would still be easier to recover from than if she had let that general sub for her, Maria repeated to herself. Getting kidnapped was one thing, being completely unable to hit the high notes was another. She'd have another chance. She'd already been promised the role of Cornelia in the summer production of I Want to be Your Canary. All she had to do was make it through this.
All she had to do.
She was trapped with no way out on an airship, no hope of rescue, and at the mercy of a strange man -
"She was the best, the fastest, the most determined-" Setzer waved vaguely at the air until his arm flopped over his face "-the most in the whole sky. World. You know."
-who would do nothing but drink and cry about a different woman.
Maria's fists knotted in the fine satin of her costume, the delicate embroidery digging into her palms. The most beautiful young soprano in the west, with the finest singing voice since Dame Julia Mendilini (according to The Appraiser, who would know) and he still ranted about this, this Daryl woman! If Maria was going to have to choose between risking her life and risking her career, then the least her kidnapper could do would be to want her!
Setzer's limp arm slithered off his face and found his glass - the only thing he had been consistently able to find this entire evening. "You don't know," he said in the confident tone of the truly, filthy drunk, "you don't know what it's like, having the wind against your face, dedicating everything to the dream. I...I don't even know what it's like. I was a coward." He stopped there, as if struck with a great realization. "I was a coward. I couldn't dedicate myself to the dream. Not like she could. Now what've I got? The only airship in the world and no dream."
Maria didn't know much about the wind against her face, but she damn well knew about 15 or 20-hour practices, starving to fit into costume, gliding gracefully across the stage with the Impresario, manager, and conductor screaming impossible instructions, and singing until her voice threatened to give out in the hopes of someday being noticed and landing that leading role-
Yes, Maria knew all about dreams. Enough that she didn't particularly want to listen to this man cry about how he'd failed his.
He'd finally slumped over the table, mumbling something that had 'gambling' and 'thrill' in there somewhere. Maria set her untouched glass down with a very final clink and stood up. There had to be a way off this thing. She didn't know much about ships, but they needed crews. Surely one of them would be willing to help her down for an autograph or two. She'd even be willing to part from the ribbon in her hair - the costume mistress could shout all she wanted afterwards!
The rest of the ship was empty.
Standing on the deck, wind against her face and tangling her hair, Maria realized that it wasn't that she didn't know how to get down. It was that she didn't know how or why they were staying up in the first place - and what was to stop them from getting down very quickly.