CHAPTER 8:
ARRIVAL AT LINDBLUM
Amethyst nursed the mug of coffee as they flew towards Lindblum. It was now very late at night, nearly early morning, and an hour of snatched sleep did little to alleviate the fatigue. She was in the small canteen of the Prima Vista. And entering the canteen, stretching his arms and yawning, was Zidane. "Damn, I'm tired," he said. "Rusty and Beatrix are keeping an eye on Garnet. Still, you guys have horns. I'm still getting over that." He got himself a mug of coffee, before walking over to her table. "What's up with that?"
"Did you ever go to the Outer Continent when you travelled, Zidane?" Amethyst asked.
"No. I went to Daguerro, and Esto Gaza. Daguerro was interesting, for a big library. But they didn't have anything that helped me," Zidane said. "Why?"
"We were adopted by King Addis and Queen Brahne when we were children, as Garnet looked like the real princess, who had died shortly before we ended up at Alexandria. Garnet and I come from a village in the Outer Continent, called Madain Sari. The two of us are summoners, hence…" She touched her horn gently.
"Oh, I see!" He peered at the horn, and reached out to touch it gently. "It's kinda cute, really. Suits you."
Amethyst smiled. Then, a thought occurred to her. "Rusty?"
"Oh, that Steiner guy," Zidane said. "His armour needs a good polish."
Amethyst rolled her eyes. "He wears it day in, day out. He's also one of my teachers as well as a bodyguard."
"So he taught you how to fight, eh?" Zidane asked. "Wouldn't have picked a cute girl like you to fight."
"Well, this cute girl can kick your rear from here to Esto Gaza," Amethyst retorted. "I got training from Steiner, from Beatrix, even this Burmecian Dragoon called Freya."
"Wait, what? You know Freya?" Zidane asked.
"Well, yes. She was my teacher. You know her?"
"I met her during my travels, and I saw her in Lindblum not long ago," Zidane said. "Nice woman. Still trying to find her love. You know about Fratley, don't you?"
"Yeah. I hope she's found him. Apparently Fratley challenged Beatrix to a spar some years ago, as a test of his abilities. I was at Lindblum with my sister at the time. Beatrix told me and Freya this while Freya was training me. Freya taught me how to use my magic to jump into the air like a Dragoon. I can't jump as high, obviously, but I can jump up a good bit. I'm better with a sword than a spear, anyway. She taught me many things, though. Despite the different weapons, her fighting style suited me better than the swordfighting styles Beatrix and Steiner had been teaching me."
"Girl of many talents, eh?" Zidane said with a smirk. Not a nasty one, just a sort of admiration. "I always thought that princesses would be all demure and stuff. A bit like Garnet. I mean, she's got guts to jump off a tower, holding onto a rope, but she's also more quiet and polite. Whereas you…well, you'd fit right into Tantalus."
"I'm not much of an actor. Took everything I could not to let the Queen know we knew of her plans." She leaned forward. "Brahne's looking to wage war against the other powers of the Mist Continent. She's got an army of golems like Vivi. I think he might be the prototype, because my Eidolons think he's the same, only he's self-aware, and benign. Black Mage golems. What's worse is that Brahne wants to take both my Eidolons, and those of my sister."
"Eidolons…you mean summon beings, right?"
"Yeah. Garnet and I have been training to use our Eidolons in private, as well as communing with them."
"Cool." As Amethyst removed her glasses, and pinched her nose from tiredness, Zidane frowned. "Hey, I don't wanna be rude or anything, but…how did you get that scar?"
Amethyst froze, before she thought about it. Her uncles had told her about her past, about the other world, about Voldemort and Dumbledore and the Potters who were her family for all of a year and a bit. Eventually, she said, "I lived with another family outside Madain Sari, but some wizard with a grudge attacked my family. My adoptive parents died, but when he tried to kill me, well, the curse rebounded thanks to something my adopted mother found out. That scar is the only thing left to show. I was sent back to live with my real mother. It happened when I was about one, so I don't remember much. I sort of remember things in my nightmares. A woman screaming, a sort of high-pitched laugh, and a green strobe of light. I do remember my real mother dying, though."
"What happened?" Zidane asked, his face solemn.
"There was a massive storm in Madain Sari," Amethyst said. "And not a natural one, either. It was caused by something magical and malevolent. My mother, my sister, and my uncle, along with me, all tried to escape by boat, as something was blocking the normal exits. I was five, Garnet was six. I was called Rose at the time, and Garnet's real name is Sarah. The King and Queen of Alexandria just had a thing for names of gemstones or something. Anyway, Sarah's memories of those events are a bit hazy, she got a fever on the way over. My mother, my real mother, got hit on the head by part of the sail. I had to use the Life spell so many times on her, but…" Her voice caught in her throat as she remembered that horrible, horrible feeling of helplessness and defeat, remembering Uncle Severus trying to console her, but being unable to, because she had failed to save her mother.
Zidane reached over and gently grasped her hand. "Sorry, I shouldn't have asked," he said softly.
"No, no, it's okay. It's…it's one of my worst memories. Uncle Severus once told me about Dementors, horrible things that suck the happiness from their surrounds, and force you to relive your worst memories. That would probably be what I see," Amethyst said. "We'll probably see Uncle Severus at Lindblum Castle."
"Uncle Severus? Actually, I think I've met him. Severus Snape? Black hair and eyes, big conk, has a glare on him like a dog's done a crap on the ground near him?"
Amethyst chuckled. "Yep, that's him. You've met him?"
"Yeah. He came to Tantalus HQ about a month or so ago to talk to Baku. I thought it weird that the ambassador to Alexandria would come to us. He wanted some potions Cinna had stashed away as well. He didn't have a horn, though."
"He's not actually a relation, I just call him Uncle Severus. I had a couple of those back at Madain Sari." Her face fell again at the thought. "I saw Uncle Padfoot…I mean, Sirius Black die, crushed under rubble. Uncle Moony's probably dead too. His name was Remus Lupin, and he was a werewolf."
"Really?" Zidane asked.
"Yeah. He was a nice guy, very smart and quiet, but he got bitten by an evil werewolf when he was younger."
"Huh. Well, sorry I had to drag up those memories. You're too cute to be sad."
Amethyst chuckled. "Do you flirt like this with all the girls you meet?"
"Oh no, this is me turning it down a few notches," Zidane said cheerfully. "Actually, we'll be coming up to Lindblum before long. The Falcon's Gate is a sight to behold, even at night! You wanna have a look-see?"
The view was spectacular, even at night. She had seen it a couple of times before. The Falcon Gate, and then Lindblum in all its glory. They were soon flying over the Theatre District, a district Amethyst was frankly unfamiliar with (the few times she had been to Lindblum, it was mostly to the castle, or to the Business District under escort), and soon came to rest at a berth.
Tantalus, along with their charges, disembarked. Baku looked at Zidane, handing him a letter. "Okay, Zidane, you go and take 'em to the castle. Give the first person who challenges you this letter. No detours, right? We'll have a holiday until after the Festival of the Hunt. Anyway, the theatres are all booked up with that ponce Lowell Bridges and Moogle Wannabe 2."
Zidane winced. As they walked away, Beatrix remarked, "Lowell Bridges? That is the rather pretentious actor with a major following of…what is that term they use?"
"Fangirls?" Zidane asked.
"Yes, that is the word I wanted," Beatrix said. "Fanatical followers who are more dangerous than an army of an equivalent size."
Steiner frowned. "I do not believe I have ever heard of these fangirls."
"Think about some of the would-be admirers of the Princesses, Steiner, especially those who have tried to infiltrate the palace," Beatrix said. As Steiner's eyes widened, Beatrix continued, "Now, consider them female, and in a mob."
"Oh," was all Steiner had to say on the matter, though packed into that single syllable was a whole world of revelation…
They took the air-cab to the Castle, and when a guard asked why they were here, Zidane handed the letter over. The guard soon scurried off, and soon, two men came back. One of them, a dark-haired man, muttered, "It seems that you could never make allowances for other people's timetables, can you, Princesses?"
Amethyst grinned. "Sorry, Uncle Severus, but we had to leave all of a sudden."
"And I am very glad of it," Severus said. "One less thing to worry about. Of course, how Alexandria is going to react to my resignation as their ambassador and claiming asylum here is another matter."
"That is all being prepared, Snape," the older, bearded man in robes said. He then looked at those gathered. "I need no introduction to the Princesses, but to the rest of you I shall introduce myself and my ally. I am Minister Artrania, chancellor to Regent Cid. This is former Alexandrian Ambassador Severus Snape, to those who don't know. If you'll come with me, we will have a brief audience with Regent Cid before we retire for the night."
"We'll discuss further details in the morning," Severus said. "I'm glad Tantalus weren't dunderheads after all."
"Actually," Zidane said, "the Princesses and Rusty and Beatrix were going to escape with us anyway. They heard something about what's happening, apparently. Luckily, we managed to work together and get out of there before Brahne knew what was happening."
Severus looked over at Steiner. "Rusty?" he asked with a wry eyebrow raised. As Steiner fumed, he looked over at Vivi. "And this one?"
"He's Vivi Orniter. He used to live by Treno. Long story short, we had to bring him with us," Amethyst said.
"Well then, let us make haste," Artrania said briskly. "Regent Cid is waiting for you in his throne room."
Cid looked, if anything, more weary than he had last time they had seen him. But when he saw the two Princesses come in, he smiled beneath his wide, crescent-shaped moustache. "Ah, Garnet and Amethyst. Thank goodness you're here. And with General Beatrix and Captain Steiner in tow to boot!"
"It's good to see you, Uncle Cid," Garnet said, smiling as she approached. "Are you well?"
"Tired. I have had a bad few months, you see. And I've had more than a few sleepless nights. But who is that child there?" he asked, indicating Vivi.
"That's Vivi Orniter," Amethyst said. "He got caught up in things, but he's also linked to what the Queen and her ally Kuja have in store."
"Kuja…yes, Ambassador Snape told me about him," Cid said. "Well, now that you're all here, we can retire for the night. Once we are rested, we will move onto a more thorough debriefing on the morrow."
It was a relief to wake up in a nice bed, knowing that one was free, even if temporarily, from the predations of someone who was supposed to be your mother. Amethyst learned that, during a late breakfast, they would have a more detailed debriefing. Amethyst decided to explore a little.
Amethyst wandered up to an observatory area, and found Garnet there already, humming Melodies of Life, a song they knew from Madain Sari(1). Garnet looked back at Amethyst, and smiled. "Good morning, Rose," she said. Her hand wandered up to her forehead, and the horn. "It is good not to have to hide anymore."
Amethyst returned her sister's smile. "Yeah, I guess so. How did you sleep?"
Garnet's face fell, and she turned away, to look at Lindblum's cityscape. How it looked so much like an ant's nest from up here, Amethyst thought. "I had the nightmare again, of Madain Sari. Of that eye, or whatever that thing was, and the storm," Garnet said quietly. "But more than that. I had a nightmare of us on a stone floor, Mother looking down at us, while Zorn and Thorn were prancing around us, and I could hear Kuja chuckling, and…" She shuddered. "It was like they were going to extract our Eidolons, Rose."
"Sarah, we're away from them now. While we're not exactly perfectly safe, we're safer than we were just hanging around Brahne. And don't forget, she isn't our mother. I'm not just talking about her adopting us. I wouldn't care if she loved us. But no loving mother would treat their children, blood relation or not, like a resource to be discarded. Our mother is dead. All that is left is a greedy tyrant."
"I know that in my mind," Garnet said. "But my heart struggles to accept that. Even now, I believe Steiner is still hard-pressed to believe that Mother would do such a thing. He accompanies us more to protect us, than to stop Mother. Beatrix, on the other hand, is trying to stop Mother from waging her war." Touching her horn, Garnet said, "…I've been afraid of my Eidolons for some time, you know. Well, not so much Ifrit and Shiva, but…Atomos, Odin, Bahamut…I fear for what I may do should I ever lose control."
"You won't, Sarah."
"Thank you for your kind words, but I know myself too well. I do not often get angry, you know this, but what if something pushed me over the edge? Imagine me using Bahamut to lay waste to a city, all because a single person in that city aroused my wrath? Kuja comes from Treno, does he not? Or at least he resides there. Should he anger me, what if I turned Treno into a crater? I'm worried, even now. But…knowing I don't have to hide what I am helps. I'm no longer as afraid of them. I'm more afraid of myself, than I am of the Eidolons."
"And I know you, Sarah. You won't. You're too nice."
A throat cleared from behind them. They turned to find Zidane there, smiling. "Sorry to interrupt, but, well, they're ready for that meeting. They sent me to get you two." As they went to him, he remarked, "Must be nice, having a sibling. Someone there for you."
"Indeed," Garnet said. "If it weren't for Amethyst, I may have forgotten my heritage. And it was only thanks to her that I know of my mother's schemes. I may have seen something wrong, but…she is more than just a sister. She is my best friend."
Zidane nodded. "Tantalus is pretty much my family. Wouldn't trade it for anything else. Come on, time's a-wasting…"
CHAPTER 8 ANNOTATIONS:
Nothing much to say here, but Cid is still human in this story. While further details will be divulged later, it's because of Snape being present.
1. As with A Third Summoner, I am naming the song Garnet sings in the game Melodies of Life, after the theme with the same tune of the game.
