Well that's that, then. There's plenty more that could be said about the destruction of Maranda, but I'm not the person to say it – if only for the simple reason that I wasn't around at the finish. If you want to know more about how the city was mullered by the Imperial army, then go and find another book on the subject. As far as I'm concerned it hardly ranks amongst my Top Ten Happy Memories, so if you don't mind I'd like to get this literary train wreck back on the rails as fast as possible.
Day had given way to night by the time the Wriqurix crested the last mountain between Vector and us. The sky was almost completely clear, and the full moon shone brightly down on the forests surrounding Vector, giving the snow-covered treetops a pale, almost ghostly look. Staring bitterly at the harsh city lights still far away, I dropped the Wriqurix into a steep dive and levelled off just above the tallest trees.
Barring a few tentative attempts to strike up a conversation, my sister had been quiet throughout the entire trip back. Although I knew that she was simply trying to keep both our minds off the tragic events of Maranda, the images of the burning city and the collapsing hospital were still too fresh in my mind to dismiss with idle chitchat. I was going to need some time to sit back and think about everything that had happened before I was willing to talk about it.
"Firma?" Terra said quietly from the back of the plane, "Shouldn't you be requesting landing permission? We're getting kind of close to-"
"I know exactly where we are, Tee, and I'll request landing permission in my own time, thank you very much!" I snarled in return, before bending over my instruments and studiously ignoring the hurt silence radiating from the rear of the plane. We flew in uncomfortable silence through the ethereal skies while I brought my careening emotions back under control enough to regret my outburst.
"I'm sorry, Tee," I said finally, in a more normal tone of voice, "You didn't deserve that."
"No, I didn't," Terra replied crossly, but then she softened her tone, "It's okay, though. It's been a rough day."
"That's the gods' own truth," I muttered ruefully as I reached for the radio, "Anyway, I'd better request clearance."
As seemed to happen so often that day, the radio crackled before I could reach the talk button, "This is Landing Control to Blue Five," the indistinct but recognisable voice of Major Anceleti hissed through the speakers, "Firma, is that you?"
"Who else would it be?" I growled.
Thankfully, Anceleti decided to let that comment go, "What happened at Maranda, anyway? We've been getting a whole mixed bag of reports here."
"It was a victory for the Empire..." Terra spoke up sadly, "Maranda isn't going to be a threat to Vector for a long time."
"Especially not with those rogue Titans stamping up and down the city," I chimed in angrily, "What happened to the Blue Meteors, Anceleti? If Jade and company had turned up on time, then…" I took a deep, trembling breath.
There was a long silence from the other side of the radio, and then Anceleti replied in a carefully neutral tone, "Terra, Firma, I don't want to hear any more of this across the airwaves, understand? I'm going to give you landing clearance for Runway Three, okay? Come to my office immediately, understand?"
There was a sudden click as Anceleti signed off. Blinking in surprise, I turned slightly to see my sister staring at me with perplexity written all over her face.
"Something big is going on here, Firma," she breathed quietly, "Did you hear the worry in Major Anceleti's voice?"
"Yeah," I nodded once, slowly, "I guess we'd better go and find out what he wants."
The moon was shining brightly enough to see the airstrip without landing lights, but as I approached the yellow and red bulbs winked into existence regardless. With a cheerless smile I throttled down the engines and banked up slightly, allowing the Wriqurix to come down quietly on the rear wheels first. There was a slight squeak as the front wheel made contact with the ground, and then we were rolling speedily along the runway towards the dilapidated hangar of the Blue Meteors. As we approached, I quickly applied the brakes and allowed the plane to come to a halt just outside the light-filled warehouse that held the squadron's whirlybirds.
"Where's the ground crew?" I asked tensely, "There's no one here 'cept Anceleti?"
"I don't know," Terra sounded no less edgy, "Let's just be careful, okay?"
Nodding firmly, I quickly undid my restraints and popped the canopy, allowing the chill winter's air to enter the cockpit. Clambering out onto the wing, I motioned to Terra to follow suit before leaping gracefully to the tarmac.
The night was almost completely silent, despite our proximity to Vector. A quiet, cold wind soughed across the airstrip, ruffling the nearby clumps of grass and whistling sadly over the wings of the Wriqurix. The diffuse glow of the moon shone down, glinting dully off my plane's armour and infusing the nearby runway with a soft, ghostly sheen. Giving the shadows a quick, wary glance, I helped Terra down from the wing of the plane before setting off inside to find Major Anceleti.
As Terra and I crossed the threshold of the hangar doors, the immediate sensation I got was one of total, oppressive silence. While normally the air dock would be filled at all hours with ground crew running around like madmen, tonight the sky-jets stood idle in ordered rows. Shivering slightly in the chill, I led my sister between the sky-jets towards the stairs that would take us up to the Major's office.
Terra was definitely right, I decided. Something very big had happened at Maranda, perhaps bigger than the city itself being totalled. I was obviously missing a piece, but it seemed to me like the entire Imperial Army was suddenly holding its breath. Even here, in this dilapidated hanger as far away from HQ as one could get, I could practically taste the electric anticipati-
There was a harsh bang noise from two sky-jets over, and if it weren't for Terra's sudden restraining hand I would have leapt clean out of my suit. A moment later the noise was repeated, this time accompanied by a rasping cry of pain or anger.
"That's Jade's voice!" I hissed to Terra, who nodded silently in response. Without wasting any more words on the issue, we quickly stepped between the next column of sky-jets and emerged to find a haggard-looking Jade assaulting her sky-jet with a spanner. Tears were streaming down her face, and with another furious cry she brought the tool around and slammed it into the thick armour, adding another dent to the multitude already on display.
"Jade!" I said sharply, "Hey, Jade!"
"Sssh!" Terra cut in, and began walking calmly towards the flight officer, "Jade? Please, give me the spanner."
Jade didn't appear to have heard her, and with another shout brought the spanner down on the glass windshield. There was a sharp noise, and when the spanner came away there was a spidery mess of cracks left in its place.
"Jade," Terra said softly, and took the spanner gently in her left hand, "Jade, listen to me."
Once again, Jade attempted to wallop the beleaguered sky-jet with the wrench, but almost vaulted over backwards when Terra's grip didn't budge. Apparently not entirely sure of where she was, the distraught woman blinked and spent a few moments studying the visored Terra's face before a light came on behind her eyes.
"It's you two," she said harshly, "I guess you've just gotten back from it all, haven't you."
"Yeah..." I said slowly, "Jade-"
"Don't you 'Jade' me, Firmament!" Jade's voice suddenly acquired a lot more snarl, "You were there – you two, of all people, could have done something! Those Titans went nuts, and all you could do was turn and flee? Some good you are!"
"Hey!" I felt my temper begin to spark again, "We were ordered out of the combat-"
"Firma," Terra cut me off quietly, "Jade, what are you doing here? Why are you..." she gestured towards the sky-jet with the hand still holding the spanner.
"Why do you think?" Jade laughed humourlessly, "It might have something to do with the whole squadron being ordered back to base without a good reason, and then those fiends in the Titan's levelling the entire city! We could have stopped them if we were there!"
There was a very nearly audible 'click' in my mind, "Yeah, you probably could have done..." I turned to my sister, "Tee-"
"I know, Firma. Be quiet," she replied sharply, and looked back at Jade, "Look, there wasn't anything you could have done. You didn't know-"
"Do you think that matters?" Jade spat, "Oh, just go away, Terra...you'll never understand!"
"But-"
"I said go away!" the flight officer screamed, causing me to back up almost involuntarily, "Anceleti wants to see you. Don't keep him waiting!"
It took all of two minutes to drag my protesting sister up the creaking metal stairs to the mezzanine where Anceleti's simple office was. Doing my best to ignore the various crashes, bangs, and hoarse shouts of pain and anger from down below, I leaned close to the door and knocked quietly.
Eventually, a calm, measured 'come in' came from within. Taking a deep breath, I slowly turned the rusty handle and forced the ill-fitting, protesting door backwards into the room.
Anceleti's office was, as one might expect, a shrine to Spartan professionalism. The largest piece of furniture in the room was an uncluttered fold-up desk, accompanied by a couple of similarly unadorned foldings chairs. The floor and walls were bare, aside from a few shelves containing a couple of books and a few obviously hand-made models. Anceleti himself was, of course, sitting on the far side of his desk apparently buried deep in some report or similar. After a moment of awkward silence, however, he looked up and gestured us forwards.
"I told you to come in," his soft voice, now that I had a chance to listen closely, definitely had an angry edge that wasn't there this morning, "Don't stand there cluttering up the doorway."
"Sorry, Anceleti," we chorused, before entering the room and taking the only available chairs. The Major spent a few moments finishing off the page of whatever it was he was reading before laying it down carefully on the desk.
"First things first," Anceleti said softly, "I don't want either of you to think any the worse of Jade for what you...may have seen down there," he paused, and took a deep breath, "I'll be blunt; her parents...well, they just moved to Maranda, and it's more than likely that they were killed in the attack."
There had been a gasp from Terra, and I sat back numbly, whispering 'Oh, no.' as I did so.
"Exactly," Anceleti pinned us both with an intense gaze, "I'm going to say it here and now; don't attempt to help Jade, either of you. For now, the best you can do is to leave her alone – besides, you have a much bigger problem on your hands," with this, he put both hands on the desk and leaned forwards, "I want you two to listen to me very, very carefully, okay? I'll answer any questions you may have, on the condition that when we're done here you go back to your barracks and stay there. You've probably already realised that something very big and potentially very dangerous has just been set in motion, and I want you two out of it as much as possible. Do you understand?"
There was a long silence in the wake of his statement, punctuated only by another distant shout and a resounding 'boing' of metal being struck, hard.
"Do you understand?" Anceleti repeated intently. I exchanged a worried look with my sister, before swallowing hard and nodding once.
"Good," the Major said, and settled back into his wheelchair, "Now, I'm pretty sure that you know why Jade's squadron never made it to Maranda, don't you."
"They were ordered back, weren't they," Terra stated flatly, "Someone with the authority to order them to return to base called them back so...they couldn't damage the Titans."
"That's about the long and short of it, yeah," Anceleti smiled humourlessly at my sister, "The missiles that we generally ship out with are more than enough to put a large hole in a Titan, if you're good enough to avoid being crisped at the same time."
"Mmm, but wait…" I shook my head, "I don't get it, though. Why order them back? Who could possibly want to burn a city filled with innocent people to the ground?"
"I think you know, don't you," Anceleti said darkly, and looked across at Terra, "Your sister does."
I looked at the Major, then at Terra, and then back at the Major again. Finally, a single name dropped into my mind, and my eyes narrowed.
"It was Kefka, wasn't it," I said quietly.
"Either him or someone associated with him," Anceleti nodded, "That's why I want you to be so careful."
"Okay, fine – I still don't get it. What does Kefka possibly have to gain from doing this?" I gave the Major a quizzical look, "As far as I can see, he'll just be court-martialed and executed."
Terra muttered something under her breath in response.
"What did you say, Tee?" I asked suspiciously.
"She said 'I doubt it', if you're wondering – and she's right," Anceleti's lips pressed together into a fine line, "You won't find a court who'll convict Kefka, and if anything this has just cemented his power base. Not counting these Titan pilots, he's almost certainly got people in all three services under his thumb, not counting the Wraiths."
"Oh, I get it – he could just have 'em assassinated," I sighed and sat back, "Well, we all know that Kefka loves power above everything else. Aside from the fact that we were there, what does this have to do with u- oh, wait, I've just answered my own question..." I gave Terra another look, this one faintly tinged with fear, "Tee, we are screwed."
"Give yourself a pat on the back, Firmament, you've earned it," Anceleti said sardonically, "You two are one of the last major power bases around. I doubt that either of you realise it, but you represent a serious amount of clout within the upper echelons of the Imperial Army. I'm willing to bet that Kefka's plan has been to solidify his support in the rank-and-file so that everyone'll be too scared to complain when he moves in for you two."
"Have you ever thought about setting up a detective agency?" I asked sarcastically, "This is an impressive piece of deduction for someone with no actual evidence."
"I think
he's right," Terra said firmly, "And I think you were right when
you said that we're in it. We've got to do something - I don't want
to end up getting killed by Kefka."
"I don't think he wants to
kill you, actually," Anceleti said darkly, "I've heard
rumours...look, it may be we've got nothing to worry about. It may be
the case that General Leo will just put his foot down hard on Kefka
and this'll all blow over, but if it goes even higher-"
"-you mean, if Kefka has the implicit support of Emperor Gestahl?" Terra blinked.
"That was a bit of a leap, but yeah," Anceleti gave another humourless smirk, before his face became deadly serious, "I'll be blunt. I've served the Empire for almost fifteen years, and I have never seen it in anything approaching the state that its in now. Unofficially, I have to recommend that both of you get off the Southern Continent as quickly as possible. I don't know that you'll be safer anywhere else, but if you stay here it'll be only a matter of time before Kefka comes for you."
There was another long silence as Terra and I digested what Anceleti had just said.
"Crikey," I said finally, "That's a lot of a statement. How on earth are we meant to pull that off?"
"Simple," Anceleti leaned in, and motioned us to do the same, "The Wriquirix is going to be put through its standard shut-down routine, but I've persuaded a member of the ground-crew to refuel her after everyone else has left. If you come back here in six hours, she'll be ready and waiting for you. Take her and fly north over the sea to the Kingdom of Figaro and try to get in contact with the Order of the Flame. I'd suggest talking to the King, but that may be too high-profile for your liking."
"Plus, Firma has a habit of putting his foot in his mouth in the presence of royalty," Terra said, giving me a sly look, "What about you?"
"I'll be fine, provided you can do something about my leg," Anceleti nodded at me, "I still remember my Wraith training, after all."
"This is all happening so fast," I said dazedly, but nonetheless rose and walked around the table to take a look at the damaged extremity, "I can't believe that I thought today was just going to be a simple trip to the winter war games."
"You're going to have to move fast if you want to stay alive, Firma," Anceleti replied, "You have six hours to prepare. I suggest you use it."
Anceleti had certainly given us plenty to mull over, and once I'd dealt with his leg Terra and I left Anceleti to handle Jade and went to cross the tall grassy field between us and the large, concrete structure known as 'home'. The wind was blowing more fiercely away from the cover of the hangar and scythed mercilessly over the winter grass, chilling us to the bone.
"So…what do you think of all of that?" Terra asked tentatively, once we were a safe distance from the hangar.
"What do I think?" I raised my eyebrows underneath my visor, "I think it's wonderful news! I've always wanted an arch-enemy, especially one with enough power to crush me like a little bug."
"Stop trying to be smart, Firma," Terra's temper flared up, and she grabbed me by the arm, "This is serious stuff. You heard what Anceleti said! In six hours we'll be fleeing the Southern Continent! What are we going to do?"
"Rest," I replied blandly, "Before I make the longest flight of my life I fully intend to have a nice long sleep. Besides, I can't believe Kefka's going to be able to move fast enough to catch up with us in the next five or six hours."
"Firma, I don't think you're listening!" Terra said worriedly, "This is General Kefka Palazzo we're talking about here! He doesn't actually need to have enough power to come after us – he just needs to think he does. If he decides that he wants us dead, then-"
"-look, we've got the next six hours before we run like buggery," I finished for her, "At the moment there's nothing we can do, Terra – nothing. What have we got between us? A couple of Imperial martial qualifications, about a thousand quid – which, might I add, probably isn't valid currency outside of the Empire, and until that Wriqurix is refuelled we don't even have any transport! How far do you reckon we'd get if we decided to make a break for it? Five miles, maybe? Ten?"
"I...guess you're right," Terra gave me a wan smile, "Everything that's happened has got me so jittery...and then there's the thought that we might actually get out from under the Empire. Can you imagine that, Firma? Not having to get up and run around like maniacs because some sergeant can't think of a better use of our time?"
"Yeah, I know what you mean," I looked around the field for a while, and sighed, "Still, I'll probably miss the old place..."
"Hey, we'll be able to come back when it's all over," Terra said jokingly, in a rather dismal attempt to lighten the mood, "Maybe we'll even get awards for innovation!"
Yeah, neither of us was really under the illusion that we'd be able to come back to the Empire if we left it in such a manner. If anything, running like this would probably result in us spending the rest of our lives looking over our shoulders to make sure that there weren't any Wraiths coming up behind us with long knives – but at the same time, it almost felt worth it just to be -as Terra said- out from under a constant regime of carefully timetabled activities. Although I hadn't realised it before, there was a part of me that had been aching for the olive groves of Figaro for gods knew how long, and now it had finally been given a chance to shout it to the heavens.
It took us maybe another twenty minutes to cross that large, grassy field and work our way back into our base. Although we had spent all day getting to and from Maranda, the majority of our comrades-in-arms were still out happily taking pot-shots at one another in the winter war games, leaving behind a largely empty base. We received a strange glance from some bugger as we hurried across the icy parade grounds, but aside from that we encountered no one else.
Before we could retreat to the dubious comforts of our room, however, there was the minor matter of signing in with the duty officer. While at night this role was performed by a dull yet astoundingly anal soldier, the daytime officer was a friendly, portly man with a cheery red face and a scalp receding at roughly the national speed limit. Technically speaking he was to be addressed as 'Sergeant Reginald', although he wasted no time in informing any newcomers to the barracks that he was to be addressed as 'Reg', unless there were any brass around, dontchaknow. As we approached the barracks, we could distantly hear the deep, guttural noises of Reg's nasal cavity taking its daily exercise and it was not particularly surprising to discover that the man in question was fast asleep in his chair.
"Evening Reg," Terra said cheerily, stepping up to the simple wooden desk that served as our barracks reception. After he did not respond, Terra leaned forward and gave him a gentle shake on the shoulder.
"I don't see you driving your boot into his spleen," I muttered from her side, and she gave me a faintly amused look. Before she could reply, there was a spectacular series of grunts and snorts as Reg's brain slowly came to life.
"W-wh-what's that you say, my lad?" he said in a plummy Vectorian accent, "I say, Private Branford, its awfully bad form to wake an old war dog like me when I'm sleeping."
"I'm sorry, sir," Terra said politely, "But we'd like to sign in."
"What?" Reg looked around, and after a moment something seemed to click in his mind, "Oh, of course my dear, of course."
He disappeared under the desk for a moment before returning with a frightfully large black-bound book that was set carefully upon the table with a dull thud. The portly sergeant quickly heaved the book open to the day's date and provided Terra with a pen.
"There you go, Private Branford," he said brightly, "Sign away!"
Terra gave me a quick sideways look before leaning over the book and inserting the relevant information. There was a quick scribble as she signed her name before she stepped aside and handed me the pen. I looked at the book, and then regarded her with a rather irritated look.
"Terra," I said with great precision, "One of these bloody days your bloody signature isn't going to bloody well take up the next three bloody lines! Where am I meant to sign?"
My sister gave an emphatic yet unsympathetic shrug in response, and motioned that I should finish signing in. Scowling, I found a small space amongst her ludicrously elaborate penmanship and inserted my initials.
"There you go, Reg," I snapped the book closed and pushed it back across the desk to the duty officer, only to find that he had already drifted back off to sleep.
"I think he's been at the brandy again," Terra said softly, giving the duty officer a gentle look.
"Mmm," I replied, "Sooner or later his liver's going to give out…but anyway-" I placed the pen lightly on top of the book and turned away, "I think I need a snooze."
Our room was pretty much as I had left it in the morning – large, cold, and filled with useless, matchstick furniture that had apparently been given to us as a perverse practical joke. However, there was one immediately noticeable difference about my side of the room.
"Terra?" I asked, almost too sweetly, "Have you been tidying up my stuff again?"
"Your stacks were massing for an invasion, Firma," my sister said calmly as she seated herself by her desk, "I had to defend my side of the room."
"So I see," I said, eyeing the now-visible floorboards with something approaching horror, "So you decided to do…what, exactly, with my work?"
"I burned it," Terra said simply, pouring her paperclips out onto the wooden tabletop, "You had too much paper anyway."
"Really," I replied acidly, sitting down at my own desk and peering around it for the elusive paperwork, "Now, what did you actually do with my stuff?"
"I put it in the big drawer, Firma," Terra said, with just the slightest hint of admonition in her voice, "You know, that large receptacle that's really much better for storing things then the floo-"
"Okay, okay," I rolled my eyes and yanked the drawer open, revealing the stacks upon stacks of paperwork, "Right."
"I thought you were going to get some sleep."
I shook my head and flourished a long, rolled up piece of paper, "Not right away. I've got to work out our flight plan on this 'ere map."
"Won't Anceleti do that for you?" Terra said, "I thought he was still your flight instructor."
"He is my flight instructor," I said irritably, "But as he keeps on saying 'If you want a job done, you've got to do it yourself'."
"Isn't that 'a job done right'?" there was a scrape of metal on wood as Terra poked the paperclips aimlessly around her desk.
"Apparently not," I shrugged, and pulled out a pencil, ruler, and compass from a smaller side drawer, "Let's have a shufti at this, then."
Well, it all seemed pretty simple. Although my particular map was so basic it only consisted of capital cities and a few points of interest, I could just about remember from the large map in the Blue Meteor's flight room where the enormous crystal dome of the Order of the Flame was.
"Kinda strange," I murmured, taking a pencil and drawing in roughly where I thought our destination was on the map.
"What is, Firma?" Terra replied, from somewhere in the back and beyond of the room.
"I remember when I first saw pictures of the Order of the Flame's base of operations, I thought 'that's a bloody stupid building', but now it seems to be our best hope of survival."
"You thought that? I thought it was really beautiful," Terra sighed, "So much nicer than the concrete blobs we get around here, anyway."
"Hah, there's an idea for you," I snorted, "Why don't you train to be an architect? When its all over you can come back here and design some nicer buildings for the Empire."
"You think I should turn up at the gates and say 'Sorry for deserting you like that, here's a nice interior design'?" Terra laughed, "Something about that doesn't quite ring true."
"No, I guess not," I shook my head and returned to my work. If that was where the Order of the Flame was, then accounting for the curvature of the planet...
"Well, this is going to be a long trip, Tee," I said, "I can tell you that for free. I haven't quite worked out the details yet, but apparently things that're far away take a long time to get to."
"Further than Maranda?" Terra asked. I nodded in response.
"About that and a half, as far as I can see," I took another rough measurement, "Yeah. On the plus side, however, you won't have megalomaniac bastards in death machines careening all over the shop laying waste to everything in sight just so that they can feel secure in their own waning masculinity..." I stopped, and took a deep breath, "So I suppose it all balances out."
"Okay..." there was the sound of a cupboard clicking shut, and the thud of Terra's boots on the wooden floor as she came back across the room, "Do you want to talk about it?"
"Talk about it? No, I don't want to bloody talk about it, Tee!" I snapped suddenly, and sprang to my feet yelling, "I want to shout and scream about it! Somewhere out there is a group of people who've just gotten away with genocide! They've killed Jade's parents and burned the entire damn city to the ground, Tee!"
"I know, Firma," Terra stood calmly in the face of my outburst, "I was asking if you were okay."
"Me?" I considered this for a split-second, then; "I'm fine! 'Course, once I track down and personally gut the people responsible-"
"Stop that," Terra said suddenly, "You're not capable of killing anyone - and besides, even if you did it wouldn't bring back the dead."
"Thank you for pointing that out, Tee," I replied sharply, and stalked over to the window, "You know what really gets me? How useless we were – I mean, when it really came down to it. What's the point in being a damn Sentinel or a bloody Mage Knight if I can't lift a finger to help people when it matters?"
"There
was nothing you could have done, Firma," Terra said softly, coming
to join me in staring out across the frozen grounds of the base, "The
only way that hospital would have been saved is if the pilot of the
Titan chose not to destroy it."
"Mmm..." I closed my eyes
and slowly ran my fingers through my hair, "This is so screwed up.
How can Kefka even...h-how
can he kill all those people just to prove a point? How did he get
wired up so wrong, Tee?"
"I don't know," Terra said, finally, "Are you going to be okay?"
"Yeah, I guess," I smiled weakly, "You?"
"I think so," Terra gave me a wry look, "If I don't focus on it, I'm sure I'll survive..." with that, she shook her head and returned to the more pressing matter of our impending departure, "I suppose I'd better throw go some stuff together, anyway. How much space is there in that plane for holding things?"
"You were occupying most of it," I said distantly, my mind still back in the smouldering ruins of Maranda, "It's not a transport, after all."
Terra gave me a long, searching look, obviously none too happy with my current state of mind, "Okay, I'll deal with the packing. You'd better get some sleep before you attempt to fly us all the way across the ocean."
"Me? I'm fi-" I stopped, and barely stifled a yawn, "Okay – point taken. I guess you can always sleep on the plane if you absolutely have to."
With that, I sat down on my bed and quickly unlaced my heavy boots before kicking them across the room to the small dark corner they cohabited with my waterproofs. Barely stifling another yawn, I lay back slowly on the hard, cold bed and listened to the indistinct noises of my sister's attempts to fit as much clothing as humanely possible into a pair of backpacks that really weren't designed for it.
Before long, I was fast asleep.
Predictably, the thing that woke me up again was my boot - that is, my boot being driven into my kidneys at an appreciable fraction of the speed of sound. Barely managing to keep down a curse, I sat up clutching at the offended organ and turned to give my twin a rather nasty glare.
"Tee, why the hell do you-"
"No time for that, Firma," Terra said quickly, and shoved both boots into my hands, "Get ready – we need to get moving."
"Huh? What?" I yawned indistinctly, and pulled the clodhoppers onto their respective feet, "Has six hours gone by already? What's the time?"
"You got four hours sleep," my sister replied shortly, "I hope you're feeling wide awake now for both our sakes."
"Well, I'd like some coffee-"
"No time for that either," Terra paused, and gestured frantically at my pathetic boot lacing attempts, "C'mon, Firma – get moving! We don't have a lot of time!"
"What...what on earth are you talking about?" I said, my mind still clouded by sleep, "The Wriqurix isn't going to be ready for another two hours. We've got loads of time."
"No, Firma, we don't," Terra said intently. Frowning, I looked up from my attempt at lacing the Gordian knot to inspect her expression a little more closely.
"Okay, Tee – what's wrong? You're getting yourself all worked up over something. What is it?"
"You mean you can't sense it?" now that I was listening, Terra's voice definitely contained a high-tension thrum that wasn't there before, "You can't feel him?"
"It? What? Him?" I shook my head, "How am I supposed to work out what you're babbling about if you don't even use consistent pronouns?"
"Stop trying to be clever, Firma!" Terra snapped, and clapped her hands hard on my shoulders, "Close your eyes and concentrate. Can't you feel it? That...shadow falling across the edge of your mind?"
"That's a bit melodramatic, Tee – and no, I'm not getting anything," I gave her a long, dark look, "You're talking about Kefka, right?"
Terra nodded slowly with wide, unblinking eyes, "I think he knows that we're going to try and escape tonight, Firma," she said slowly, and took a deep breath, "I think he's coming for us."