Author's Notes: Please bear with me and actually read this section this time. It is important.

The perk of working on a novel for the last several months is becoming more confident in your writing, and coming to the realization that there is always more to learn about writing. You also come to realize that you can always do better on what you have done before. Thus, after such a long hiatus from working on Hyne's War I return to it, hopefully a better writer. With this being what I intend to be the first part of a two part epic regarding what may come after the known timeline of Final Fantasy 8, I want to give it what is my best, and thus I find myself compelled to revision. A truly large one at that. As such I have returned to the very beginning and am reconstructing the story right from the first word. I hope to avoid some of the horrible language and grammar mistakes I have been making, and at the same time I hope to provide a better story altogether.

I ask you to be patient while I catch up with revisions, and please go back and reread old material (you will know it by a new author's notes preceding all revised sections. I ask this as there will be new things in with the old, and it is quite possible that by the time I reach the point where I started the revision (revision of original prologue through chapter 8) there will be some major changes in the story.

I have every intention of finishing Hyne's War and moving on to Eden's Chosen. Real life, of course, comes first, though I doubt there will be much conflict at this point in time due to the fact that I am currently on the easy side of my final semester of my undergraduate studies. This story also provides me an outlet for the urge to write while enabling a break from the work I need to do to get my novel into a presentable version.

As always, any offers for potential betas are more than welcome, especially for the aspect of 'poke LotP until she gives you more story' role.

Still, I do not want to add to the story of Hyne's War with the next series of events until I have revised up to that point, just in case a major change leads to something new in what I have to do next. Thus I present you with the first of what may be several interludes. I hope to post one every few chapters I revise. For instance, at the time of this interlude's writing I have posted the revisions of the Prologue up to and through Chapter 3. When the next interlude has gone up I will hopefully have posted revisions of 4 and 5, and a third interlude after posting revisions of 6-8. At that point I will continue with the story. Either way I ask you to go back and read revised sections as I make them available (and inform you of them by the addition of these interludes).

Now, for the first interlude. Hope you like it.

Hyne's War: Interlude One

Coming to Balamb

Carefully Nida peered through the leaves of the shrub he was hiding behind, searching for some sign of the blond boy who he had fled to this place to avoid. When he caught no sign of the blond, or anyone else for that matter, Nida let out a relieved sigh, or at least he tried to. Instead something that started as a sigh and turned into a sob escaped despite Nida's best efforts. Even hearing the sob made Nida's eyes sting all over again, tears not threatening but promising to fall again. Quickly Nida scrunched his eyes closed, trying to use force to keep the tears back. Nida doubted it would work, but still he had to try. If he didn't then the sound of his crying would almost certainly make it easier for that horrible blond kid to find him.

Daphne wouldn't want Nida to be miserable because some mean kid thought it would be funny to tease him for crying. Besides, boys Nida's age weren't supposed to cry.

And yet the thought of Daphne brought the tears back to Nida full force, and before he could stop them the tears were flowing once more. All Nida could do was try to muffle the sound with his sleeve and try not to let the shaking of his shoulders shake the bush he was using as a hiding place.

Eleven year-olds don't cry, Nida tried to tell himself, but the words were as weak in his mind as he knew they would be from his own lips. Eleven year-olds also didn't suddenly find themselves in another country, in a place filled with almost only kids, and with mean ones who thought they had the right to tease other people for being upset, right? Well, maybe other boys his age did, but Nida didn't. He belonged in Winhill with Daphne, helping her make soup for dinner or dust the mantle over the fireplace, or fetch groceries for her, or even maybe in his bed, curled up under the blankets and reading one of the books Daphne had bought him for his birthday. More than anything, Nida was sure he didn't belong in this Balamb place, where everything was made out of cold stone and steel instead of the warm wood of the cottage.

"Hey, is there someone there?"

Nida almost choked on a sob before he slammed a hand tightly over his mouth and tried his hardest to stifle any more sounds. Unfortunately it did nothing to stop him from having the sniffles that came with crying, and when Nida tried to breathe in through his nose it came as a sniffle, a loud one too.

"Hello?" the voice came again, and Nida listened as quietly as he could, as still as he could, as the bush he hid behind started to rustle. Someone was clearly looking for him.

"I know I heard someone. Come on, I'm not in the mood for hide-and-seek."

Then, before Nida could do anything, a head appeared to his left, peeking around the bush. All Nida could see at first was the bright red color of the person's hair and the shock in the bright blue eyes.

"Hey," the boy said, quickly pushing his way around the bush to reach Nida, "are you okay? Did someone hurt you?"

Nida stared and shook his head as the red-haired boy squatted down beside him. Even from a single look Nida could tell that this kid was not like the blond boy that had been so mean. For one thing the red-haired boy really looked concerned, and already started to look over Nida to see if he was hurt. As soon as the boy had satisfied that curiosity he plopped down next to Nida on the ground and put an arm around Nida's shoulder.

"Don't worry, you just look like you could use a friend. So tell you what, I'll be your friend. Okay?"

Eyes wide Nida looked at the red-haired boy, stunned by how much the boy almost sounded like an adult. But from what Nida could tell the other boy couldn't be more than a year or two older than Nida was, or so he thought. In the end, though, Nida nodded.

"Good. Let's start with drying your eyes. Yeah, just use your sleeve for now, I don't have any tissues. Alright, that's good. Now, tell me what's wrong and I'll try to help, okay?"

"I... I..." Nida didn't know what to say, much less how to explain it all. What if trying to tell this other kid led to the same response as the blond kid had given? Nida wasn't quite sure if he was ready to handle that again.

The stammering didn't seem to bother the red-head though, who just smiled at Nida and said, "It's okay, take as long as you need."

So in silence the pair sat there for a while, Nida trying to keep from crying and the red-haired boy not saying anything to force Nida to talk. At last, though, Nida found himself calm and shifting, and the red-head removed his arm from around Nida's shoulders.

"All better now?"

Nida nodded.

"Ready to talk about it?"

"There was this boy..."

There was a sigh from the other boy and a look of annoyance. "Let me guess. Blond kid, about my height, acted like he owned the place?"

For a moment Nida stared, shocked by the fact that the other boy seemed to know exactly who Nida was thinking about, even though Nida hadn't said anything.

"Yeah."

"That would be Seifer. He's a jerk, and not that smart if you ask me. Better just to ignore him."

"But... He said that my being here meant that my parents didn't want me."

"Sounds like something that idiot would say. Just because no one wanted him doesn't mean that everyone here is like that. My foster father sent me here."

"My mother died."

Nida watched as the other boy's eyes went wide, his mouth gaping open. Then, before Nida could react, the red-haired boy was flinging his arms around Nida in a tight hug, just like Daphne used to do.

"Seifer, you stupid... I'm so sorry. I'll make him sorry to. No one... Hell, I know they used to send..."

The boy's words started to run together to the point where Nida couldn't make heads or tails of them, but the surprisingly strong arms around him were a comfort.

"Have they asked anyone to show you around yet?" the boy said as he finally released Nida a minute later.

"No," Nida said, shaking his head.

"How about a room?"

"With the blond boy, Seifer," Nida mumbled, and the red-head frowned.

"That really won't work," the boy frowned. Then he stood, took Nida's hand and pulled Nida to his feet. "Come on. My roommate moved out a month ago, went home. Maybe we can get you permission to stay with me instead. Okay? I'll show you all around Garden too."

"But," Nida started, unsure that even trying to get the grown-ups to understand would be allowed. Yet the bright-blue eyes of the red-head shone—with determination or resolve Nida was sure—and Nida could not find it in himself to say no. "But I don't even know your name."

That made the red-head smile.

"Well then, that is the easiest thing to fix, isn't it? My name is Zale. Elijah Zale. And you?"

"Nida Nomura."

Elijah's smile only seemed to grow. "Well, Nida, just trust in me. I promise that I'll make things better as best I can. Okay?"

Nida could do nothing other than nod. Somehow he was sure that this Elijah, even as young as he was, would do just what he promised.