Final Fantasy VI and its characters are © Square-Enix. I'm just borrowing them for our enjoyment.

- Celes

- WoB, during the joint mission to Thamasa

Prompt: Fire

Celes heard about the fire that demolished the mansion the following morning, well after her... former companions had proved themselves heroes for rescuing the young village girl. She made a tight fist and pounded it against the sturdy table in her room at the Inn, livid that the old man had awoken Lo... the Returners but not her and Leo.

The thought of them rushing into danger without her, especially when she was so well suited to protection from fire and magic in general, was infuriating. Trying to calm herself, she reasoned that the old man (Strago, was it?) would have no way of knowing of her ice affinity, but HE certainly would have! She seethed, absently rubbing at her newly sore hand.

Glaring at the offending table, Celes admitted to herself that it was juvenile to avoid so much as thinking his name, and took a deep breath. Exhaling, she rolled her eyes at herself and sneered, glancing around to be sure the room was well and truly empty before whispering, "...Locke."

Petulant about being slighted she may be, but he was still the bigger idiot for refusing to call for her aid the previous night. Honestly! He could have gotten himself, Terra, that poor little girl, and her grandfather all killed trying to play the hero. From everything she understood, he nearly had and indeed would have had Shadow not intervened and saved them all.

Terra was powerful, and Locke was certainly brave, but neither of them had any experience with rescue missions, at least not that she knew about. As weary as she still was of the Empire, she had to admit that she was well trained, just as Leo was. Grimacing at a sudden flood of memory, she tried to ignore that Terra being roughly her age was a large part of how she knew so very much about battling fire magic and burning fires with her powers. The road to becoming a Rune Knight was certainly brutal, but it had left her powerful.

The Empire... If she hadn't been reassured by her messenger that the whole event had been an accident, the fault of the grand mansion's inhabitants, she would have guessed that a plot were afoot to ruin the expedition. She was beyond suspicious of the Emperor; too easily had he welcomed her back into his service after the debacle with Kefka at the Cid's Laboratory. Lacking any proof, she had no way to sway Leo away from his duty, despite her nagging fear that a noble and honest man such at him was likely to be a target, and soon. And so, she acted as though Gestahl's 'forgiveness' was a great boon, and that she was grateful beyond words to once again bear her title of General. Leo seemed none the wiser to any of it.

Something was clearly off, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Whether the focus was herself, Leo, Terra, or perhaps even the Espers themselves, she did not know.

For now, she would wait, and watch.

And hope that idiot didn't get himself killed by being a hothead before they had a chance to talk to one another.