AN - Sorry for the delay. Hopefully this chapter doesn't stink? (._.)
"Celes Ascending" by Imrryr
Chapter 10: "The Mastersingers of Jidoor"
...
"What's all this damned yelling?"
- Sixtus Beckmesser, from Wagner's 'Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'
...
Jidoor. The grand hall of the Royal Opera House.
...
"Ah! It's you again..." he said, sighing at the sight of the same people he had literally run into back at Owzer's house. To Terra the impresario seemed even more agitated than he had been at the party. And if the tracks in the plush red carpet here were any indication, he had been pacing for a very, very long time.
Making sure her hood was covering her head properly, she kept back from the group, desiring not to attract attention to herself.
"We read the letter you dropped," Locke said to him. "So, Setzer is coming to snatch Maria away?"
The man nodded sadly. "He'll probably appear right at the climax of the first act. He loves to make an entrance..."
"He's done this before?" Celes asked.
"Oh, no, not exactly. He did once abduct the princess of Levante during her wedding, but to be honest I think she paid him to do it. Her future husband - the Duke of Autan - was four times her age, you understand."
"Fascinating," Celes grumbled, her arms crossed in irritation.
"All right, then," Locke said, slapping his hands together to get everyone's attention. "When he shows up, we'll jump out and nab him!"
"Dear me, no!" The poor man looked like he was going to have a heart-attack just considering the possibility. "You'll ruin the performance! I'll lose everything!"
Celes nodded, "But if you do nothing..."
He hung his head at the unfinished statement. Setzer was going to steal his star singer no matter what he did. "Oh, this is simply horrible... I want the performance to be a success, but I can't allow Maria to be abducted."
"That's why we'll let him grab her," Locke continued.
"W- What?! It's bad enough if the opening night is ruined, but don't you understand what will happen if he takes Maria? No singer would ever work for me again!"
Locked sighed. "We'll use a decoy. Once he's got her, we'll follow him right back to his airship. And if all goes well, we should be able commandeer it!"
"Are you mad!? If anything should happen to Maria -"
"That's why the decoy! You can hide Maria someplace safe!"
Some of the color finally returned to the maestro's face. "Come again?"
"You said Celes looks like Maria, right?"
Celes held out a hand, "Now wait just a minute -" but there was no stopping Locke.
"She can be our Maria! We'll let Setzer kidnap her and lead us to his airship!"
The maestro's eyes lit up. "Brilliant!"
Celes vehemently disagreed. "You want me to do what?!"
Terra gulped. There was Celes' dark anger again. It flushed her cheeks, made her muscles tense and her blue eyes grow dark. Everyone in the room felt a rushed of chilled air, like stepping out of a warm home and into a Narshean winter. Ice magic. Even Terra shivered at the feeling.
"I'm a general, not some opera floozy!"
Terra didn't know what a floozy was exactly, but she assumed it was bad.
Locke held up his hands, giving a palms-out gesture like he was trying to convince a lion not to devour him. "We know you aren't, Celes. But this is the only way we can lure Setzer here. Otherwise, we could waste weeks, if not months, trying to find him."
The impresario's jubilant expression faded. "But wait, wait!" he cried, gesturing madly to grab Locke's attention. "Can she sing?"
"Can she sing?!" the thief repeated. He leaned over to Celes and whispered nervously into her ear, "You can sing, right?"
Celes clenched her fists. She wanted to slug him, but this was probably the only way to get Setzer here without risking the impresario's precious diva or wasting any more of their time. She resolved to slug him later.
"Fine," she muttered, even as she shook her head 'no'. "I'll do it." The impresario's expression remained doubtful. "And yes..." she continued, "I can sing."
"Mezzo?"
Celes nodded.
"Wonderful!" the impresario exclaimed, his expression turning jubilant once again. He beckoned her to follow. "Come now. I'll introduce you to everyone. Oh! And we'll need to find someone to get you fitted for your dress," he continued as he led the woman to the backstage doors. "I do hope you're Maria's size. It would save us ever so much money..."
Celes' lips pursed at the word 'dress'. As they departed, Terra was grateful that the woman hadn't been looking at her because she couldn't quite keep back a smile. What would Celes look like in a fancy dress, she wondered.
"Better get to work!" Locke called out. "They're gonna make a star out of you, Celes!"
As the backstage doors were closing behind them, Celes stopped, turned completely around and made some kind of hand gesture, holding up two fingers with her knuckles out. Judging by Locke's bemused expression, Terra assumed the gesture was meant to be insulting.
When the doors slammed shut the cavernous hall went very quiet.
With Celes gone, and with the opera's grand opening five days away, the remaining members of their little Returner army huddled together to decide on their next course of action. Eventually everyone agreed that Sabin and Cyan would secure their lodgings for the coming week, while Locke tried to get any information they could on Imperial activities in the city. And Terra... well, it was decided that she would be better off staying out of the way. She simply stuck out too much as she currently was.
Her shoulders slumped as she watched Locke leave out the front door. She didn't like it, but what could she possibly do in the city while she looked like this... other than attract a crowd of gawkers and the attention of any Imperial spies? Frustrated, she yanked her hood back, letting her hair free as she let out a deep breath. Just because she agreed to this didn't mean she wasn't irritated. She was tired of hiding who she was.
Hearing her sigh, Sabin gently patted her back with one of his enormous hands. "Don't worry about it, Terra. Think of it as a five day vacation. We'll get you a nice secluded room where you can relax and -"
Just then another man in a fancy suit burst through the front doors. "Maestro! Maestro!" he cried. As the hall was otherwise empty, he looked straight to them for help. Sabin only shrugged and pointed in the direction the impresario had headed.
The stranger nodded, but just as he seemed about to dash off after him, he stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of Terra.
"And who is this?" he drawled, quickly reaching out and grabbing Terra's hand.
Terra squeaked in surprise, unable to extricate herself from the man's grip. He was looking her up and down in apparent amazement; even mostly covered up as she was, her pink skin and wild, matching colored hair were hard to miss.
"Who did your makeup?" He ran a finger up and down Terra's open palm, evidently surprised that nothing rubbed off. She blushed horribly.
Cyan stepped forward. "Sir," he stated firmly, "I demand you unhand that wo -"
The stranger paid him no notice, "This is wonderful!" His eyes darted around the hall, "Maestro!" he cried out again. Sabin and Cyan each took a nervous step back. Clearly this man's enthusiasm was too much for either of them.
"Coming! Coming!" came a shout from backstage. The impresario reappeared at the doors, looking just as frazzled as he had a minute ago.
Meanwhile, whoever this stranger was, he seemed to be growing more excited by the second. Terra looked down at their interlocked hands. She really didn't want to have to set him on fire just to get him to let go, but she was strongly considering it.
Thankfully, he let go on his own when he stepped back and then tapped his goateed chin in thought. "Wouldn't this look be wonderful for the grove scene, don't you think?" he asked the maestro, leaning back and appraising Terra's body and white robe like she was a porcelain vase. "We simply must have you."
"Oh," the impresario exclaimed, apparently only just now noticing the half-esper's presence after all this time, "You must be one of the fairies for the grove scene! And with make-up on already! Wonderful!" Awestruck, he closely inspected Terra's 'costume' as the stranger kept nodding in agreement all the while. "Signore Bartoli has really outdone himself this time! Our old costumes were simply horrid, but just look at this!" he continued, lifting Terra's arm and noting the pink tufts of hair growing from it. "I knew he would come up with something wonderful!"
Fairy? Grove scene? What was this guy talking about? Terra's mouth opened but no words came out.
"Come, come!" said the stranger, pulling her along towards the backstage door with the impresario at her side. "Round up the stagehands! With two dozen fairies we're going to need a lot of pink hair dye. Oh, and body paint and –"
Just before the door slammed behind her, Terra looked back over her shoulder at Sabin and Cyan for help, but they could only stare back at her with completely dumbstruck expressions on their faces.
…
Later that night...
...
Celes blinked as the music came to an end. Now the only sound in the small room came from the gentle scratching and popping sounds of the needle reaching the end of the record.
The task before her was so much more complicated than simple memorization of her lines. There were cues from the orchestra and from the other singers to remember, not to mention all the stage directions she would need to follow... If only it had been an opera she was familiar with; she'd still be out of her depth, of course, but any little bit would help. As it stood, she had only her numerous future practice sessions and this recording of 'Maria and Draco' to guide her.
Only five days to get to the point where she could be a halfway decent stand-in for Maria. At the moment, she'd settle for not getting booed off the stage the instant she opened her mouth.
She was going to kill Locke.
With a sigh, she pushed herself off the floor, leaned over to the record player on the bedside table and gently flipped the disk over. That simple act brought back a memory of Lightning walking into her office and doing this very same thing a hundred times without a word passing between either of them.
She sat back on the floor and leaned against the bed. She hadn't thought about Lightning in weeks. Hopefully the woman wouldn't have been interrogated by the Secret Service when they found out about Celes' defection. Probably not, she thought. They hadn't spoken in years and could hardly have been considered close anymore. Cid on the other hand... no, he was much too useful to them.
And then, she thought as she lay there on the floor, arms clasped together over her abdomen, her former home had probably been turned inside out by Imperial agents once news of her defection had reached Vector. All of her records were probably long gone by now. She sighed again. As a soldier she knew better than to get attached to material things...
Music finally began to come from the phonograph again; a stately, majestic number with short, dotted rhythms heralded the entrance of Ralse, the pompous King of the East, Draco's sworn enemy. In this scene he sees Maria, the king's bride and former queen of the West, for the very first time and - unsurprisingly - falls instantly in love with her beauty.
It brought a smile to Celes' face; not the predictability of that scene, but rather the irony of it all. Soon after being dragged backstage she had met both Giovanni, the man who would be singing the part of the enemy king, and Diego, the star tenor who would be singing the part of Draco, the opera's hero. Once out of their roles, Giovanni was friendly and approachable while Diego was cold and distant, a perfect reversal of their characters. Still, even the distant and moody Diego was a pleasure to be around compared to the world-famous diva she would be replacing.
To put it mildly, Maria wasn't at all pleased with the idea of someone else singing as her and 'soiling her reputation' as she so gracefully put it. About an hour into the first rehearsal she barged onto the stage and managed to drown out the orchestra with her screaming. The meeting that followed was a tense affair. Celes wasn't used to being regarded as though she were a bug to be stepped on, but she kept her cool throughout, reminding herself that all this would all be worth it when they were on their way to Vector.
Celes had gotten off easy though; she could handle the few crude comments Maria hurled at her. The poor impresario on the other hand eventually found himself trapped in the soprano's dressing room where he continued to be chewed out for a good half an hour.
So, eventually, Maria agreed to leave the city for her own safety, but only if she were paid her full salary, and only if after the performance it would be officially announced that Maria's role had been sung by an 'imposter'.
Before leaving, she also had her attendant maids take her collection of elaborate and expensive dresses… primarily out of spite, Celes assumed. Now it probably wouldn't be until the night before the opening that Celes would actually have a proper dress to perform in.
She groaned. She had forgotten about that damn dress.
'Yes,' she reminded herself as she unconsciously clenched her fists, 'Locke Cole is a dead man.'
At least Maria agreed to perform in all the remaining shows. And the impresario seemed willing to accept an interrupted opening night's performance as long as it meant Maria would continue to work for him. Then the press would proclaim him the hero for sacrificing his opening night to protect Jidoor's most beloved soprano.
It would probably lead to a sold out season.
Oh well, she didn't particularly care what happened so long as she got that airship.
She tapped her chest to the rhythm of the music as Ralse began his entrance aria, 'Behold! The West is silent.'
Celes was thankful that she was at least already familiar with the story of Maria and Draco - if not the opera itself. It made the act of memorizing her lines a little easier. This was the scene where Ralse meets Maria for the first time.
She was also thankful she wouldn't have to kiss anyone. That scene came at the end of the second and final act. All she needed to do in the first act before Setzer arrived was portray a dignified woman of regal bearing pining for her lost love. Aside from the singing, the most difficult part would be the dancing; first, with the 'ghost' of Draco and then with Ralse himself at the grand ball. During the duel that followed, she only had to look on in horror as Draco and Ralse fought for her hand.
'Pfft,' she thought. If she were truly in Maria's shoes she'd just knife Ralse herself. Actually - scratch that - if she were Maria, she would've been leading the army and the West never would've lost in the first place.
Still, despite its predictable romantic plot, Maria and Draco's love story was actually rather unique. Normally, the evil king who steals the hero's love would be portrayed in a completely negative fashion, but Ralse was different; he falls genuinely in love with Maria's spirit and grace. And the more she refuses him, the more he enamored he becomes.
Then there was the character of the Fairy Queen who falls in love with Draco after he retreats into the forest. So in all, that was quite the love triangle, or rectangle, or whatever...
Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. Celes quickly reached over and turned down the music she had been playing perhaps a bit too loudly. It was nice of the impresario to lend her Maria's private apartment. She could listen to the recording over and over again long into the night without disturbing anyone. "Come in," she called out.
Her expression twitched in amusement when she saw a pink hand appear from behind the door. No longer wearing her white cloak, Terra was now dressed in a loose fitting, almost gauzy white dress that wrapped over her right shoulder and reached down to her ankles. Celes had overheard enough to know that this was the dress the fairies were to wear for the scene when the badly wounded Draco stumbles into the grove of the Fairy Queen.
The woman looked a little self-conscious, but she was still Terra through and through; effortlessly beautiful without even being aware of it, and the dress looked just as ethereal and magical as the woman who wore it. Terra was like something out a dream, and bloody hell, she really, really needed to stop thinking about her like that...
As the woman stepped in and gently shut the door behind her, Celes was thankful that at least she was no longer contemplating jumping the poor girl, like she had been months ago back in that old, twisted forest. Perhaps, she liked to think, she had better control over herself now. But the reality was that the girl simply wasn't as magically charged as she had been on that fateful day. The magic was still there, Celes could sense it, but it was no longer overpowering. Day by day the feeling lessened. She wondered if perhaps soon the woman's esper half might go back into hiding again once the residual magic faded enough.
No, her attraction to Terra had to be put down to the simple fact that the half-esper was the most captivating woman she had ever set eyes on.
"Celes?"
The blonde smiled and beckoned her closer with a wave of her hand.
Terra curiously admired the large room. The walls were covered with posters of Maria; most depicting her in a fancy dress alongside other women in fancy dresses and men in tuxedos. There were also framed cuttings of rave reviews given to her performances. If there was one thing Terra knew about Maria it was that she certainly had a high opinion of herself.
"So, I heard you got a part in the show," Celes began, a smile creeping onto her face. She still couldn't believe it.
Terra nodded.
"You volunteered?"
"Not exactly..." At Celes' confused expression, Terra did her best to explain what happened, even though she could make little sense out of it herself. She grew slightly perturbed when the sitting woman laughed at the end of her story.
"Is it a big part?" she continued.
Terra shook her head, "I'm fairy number seven. I just - um - dance. We sing too - all together, I mean - but the director said I could just fake my way through that if I wanted to."
Celes smiled. "And you don't mind doing it? I could tell them to back off if you wanted."
Another shake of her head. "No. I like the dancing parts. The director says I'm a natural at it."
'I bet,' Celes thought. Terra practically danced with her swords when she had fought Kefka's forces back in Narshe. The strange beauty of it all was something she'd never be able to forget.
"What about you?
"Hmm?"
"Do you mind doing this?"
Celes made a face. "Yes. But if it gets us to Vector, it'll be worth it."
"You didn't seem so accepting of it earlier."
She shrugged and looked at her own bare feet. "I was overreacting..." When Celes got the nerve to look up, she had to laugh, she knew why Terra was smiling like that. "You really think I can do this?"
The half-esper knelt down and patted Celes on the knee. "I've heard you sing before. You have nothing to worry about."
Celes grunted and looked away. There were a ton of things to worry about. Singing for one person was nothing like singing and dancing on stage in front of thousands of people, with a dozen other actors, an orchestra, and everything planned intricately in advance. It was like coordinating a massive assault by land, sea and air, only hopefully with a few less casualties...
"Think of it as a chance to wear someone else's skin," Terra said, "It's your chance to be someone besides the general for once."
Celes' thoughts abruptly ended. She stared at the kneeling girl seriously for a long time before she crossed her arms and grunted. "How'd you get so damn wise anyway?"
Terra smiled again as she sat cross-legged on the plush carpeted floor. "What does Artemis have to say about all this?"
"Nothing," said Celes with a hint of a frown. "She hasn't spoken to me since Zozo."
Terra nodded sadly, she still thought of Ramuh a lot too. "I've never lost anyone I've cared about." That wasn't entirely true, but she had never really known her mother, or her father.
Celes' eyes seemed to bore into Terra's own. Her expression was much more serious, "And I'll do everything I can to make sure that you never do."
The half-esper's lips twitched at the gesture. Then she thought about how it would feel if she lost Celes... Her heart sank in her chest at the idea. Suddenly, she understood a little about how Artemis must be feeling now. Celes deserved a long life filled with happiness. And then Terra found herself wondering what such a life would entail for her friend. If the war ended tomorrow, what would Celes want to do? Perhaps, Terra thought, she'd find out if she got to know her a little better...
They remained there in that room, Celes sitting on the floor against the bed, Terra still close by. Each one was lost in their own world as the music of the opera quietly played on. Now, Maria was singing a sad song about her fate; yet another aria the blonde would have to learn in less than a week.
"Celes, can I ask you something?"
She nodded.
"What does the word 'mezzo' mean?"
It took a moment for Celes to remember when that word had ever come up. Then she recalled what the maestro had asked her just before he rushed her off to be fitted into that natty old dress, a substitute for the one she would wear on opening night. "Oh. It's just a voice type. There's the soprano, mezzo-soprano and then the contralto, which is the rarest..."
"Oh, um... okay." Terra stood there, brow still furrowed in thought. "Celes?"
"Hmm?"
"What's a soprano?"
Celes shook her head and chuckled. She patted the floor next to her. "Sit down and I'll do what I can to explain."
Four days later, the day before the premiere, in the gardens behind the opera house...
...
Terra kept to the bushes and simply observed. She hadn't meant to hide - even if that was kind of exactly what she was doing now - it was just something she did without thinking.
On the other side of the bushes and the concrete railing surrounding this garden, Sabin and Celes were dueling. It had been the sounds of exertion and the cracking of sword on sword that had grabbed her attention in the first place.
Celes was wearing a pair of tan colored shorts and a tight, sleeveless green shirt that was growing ever more stained with sweat. Her long blonde hair bounced here and there in its ponytail as she swiftly avoided Sabin's attacks; dodging, parrying with her weapon, even leaping out of the way. They were only using wooden practice swords, but judging by the welts on both their bodies it still must've hurt like hell to get hit by them.
Her gaze was hard, dangerous, feral. It reminded Terra of her own no longer human self, with its sharp, almost claw-like nails and unnatural strength. She could remember how she first reacted when she transformed, how she relied entirely on instinct. Celes was doing exactly that now.
Sabin on the other hand, didn't betray his emotions outwardly. His muscles tensed as he deflected Celes' sudden attacks with his own wooden sword, but his countenance remained serene. His old master, Duncan, must've trained him very well.
At that moment, Terra realized that she had never seen so much as a tear out of him, despite recently losing the man who had taught him everything he knew.
A yell broke her thoughts. Celes did that a lot when she was fighting. It was how Terra was able to track her down on that snow swept battlefield north of Narshe; her battle cries gave her away.
Celes was the opposite of Sabin. Her expressions changed all the time; from anger to joy, from frustration to pride, depending on how the fight progressed. Meanwhile, though Sabin was enormously strong, physically stronger than any creature Terra had ever seen, he remained composed throughout the fight. He'd get knocked down, jump right back up on his feet and brush himself off like it hadn't fazed him in the slightest. And all that despite the growing number of bruises on his body.
It was strange; Celes was the ice mage, yet Sabin was the one was always so cool under pressure. Instead, the former general was like a flame that burned bright and hot. It was a flame that Terra found herself wanting to reach out and touch even though she knew it was dangerous.
How could someone look so beautiful, yet be so dangerous at the same time? Terra found the seeming contradiction impossible to come to grips with. Her mind grew increasingly foggy as she watched the woman and an unexplainable anxious feeling began to take hold. Her breathing grew harder and the world around her grew ever warmer even as everything else, the leaves rustling in the wind, the birds chirping, all faded from view until nothing was left in her mind except Celes Chère.
The heat grew... it reminded her of her transformation in a way, the way everything turned to fire. She didn't know why, but watching Celes, the way her exposed muscles rippled as she evaded Sabin's every move, the way her eyes flashed when she was about to strike, the sweat dripping down her face... it brought those feelings right back, and it made Terra want to... well, she didn't really know... but it made her want to do something.
The thought of being in Sabin's place, those dangerous eyes boring into her own instead of his... the thought made Terra's face heat up. Surely that wasn't a normal reaction? Was she in danger of losing control of herself again?
"Okay, okay," Sabin said gasping, putting up his hands before Celes could lunge at him again. "That's enough for one day, I think."
She stopped in mid-swing. "Oh," she said, lowering her weapon and then stabbing in into the soft ground until the sword stuck out from it without support. "Are you all right?"
Sabin tossed his own wooden sword to the ground in defeat. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said. "I'm just going to go lie down for a day or two."
Celes rolled her eyes; she hadn't hit him that hard. "I could heal those bruises for you, you know."
He held up his hands again. "No, no. It's the only way I'll learn."
The former general grinned. "Someone teach you that?"
He nodded. "Master Duncan was very... strict."
She shook her head. "Well, he sounds a lot like my old drill sergeant. Duncan wasn't a former Imperial officer by any chance?"
Sabin gave a short laugh as he limped away. "I'd love to ask him about that."
While Sabin stalked off to nurse his wounds, Terra willed herself to pop up from behind the banister before she gave herself a chance to really think about what she was doing.
"Terra?" Celes was still breathing hard. She wiped the sweat off her forehead with her arm but she relaxed slightly and gave that sort of nervous half-smile that the half-esper had seen a hundred times since they had been reacquainted.
"What were you doing?" Terra asked. Sure, she had been watching long enough to know the answer to that question, but Celes didn't need to know that.
"Oh, just sparring. I don't want to get soft."
"Soft?" she repeated, tilting her head curiously. Soft wasn't a word she'd ever use to describe Celes.
"From wearing dresses and singing all day, I mean."
Terra pursed her lips. Celes said the strangest things sometimes.
"Yeah. Um... that sounded kinda stupid, didn't it?"
The half-esper kept her lips firmly closed.
Again that half-smile reappeared. "So... um, what brings you out here?"
"I was looking for you."
That seemed to surprise her. "Oh. Well, here I am," she said lamely.
"Did you want to spar some more?"
The blonde nodded. "Yeah, but I already wore Sabin out, and I haven't seen Locke all day."
She kept her mouth shut. Earlier in the day, Locke had given her some mana potions to give to Celes. It went unsaid, but she was pretty sure he was avoiding the woman until her anger cooled off... at least a little.
Terra smiled as she pushed herself off the banister. "Well, I could be your opponent," she suggested as she picked Sabin's discarded practice sword off the ground.
Celes' eyes widened. "Umm..."
"You can't hurt me. Not really anyway. And we both have healing magic."
Celes slowly nodded, but her expression betrayed her horror at the idea. How could she get out of this one, she wondered, but Terra remained there waiting expectantly, dressed in a simple white shirt and shorts. The former general sighed, took a few moments to heal the worst of her own bruises, then raised her sword and assumed something resembling a battle stance.
A nod from Terra let her know to begin. For a long time they only circled each other, Celes struggling to come up with different ways of defeating her friend without causing any serious damage.
Eventually Terra began to grow bored with this. She feinted with the wooden sword, and faster than Celes would've believed possible, the smaller woman grabbed her wrist, plucked the weapon from her hand and threw her unceremoniously to the ground.
Breathing hard, Celes pushed herself onto her knees and looked up at the still standing woman with shock written on her face. 'What the hell was that!?' she asked herself. Terra only smiled at her and stretched out her hand. She didn't look even the least bit winded.
Celes shook her head, refusing the offered hand, and hauled herself up. Terra handed her back her sword, which she accepted with a somewhat annoyed grunt.
After she dusted herself off, they faced each other again, and again Celes was taken to the ground within seconds.
It took several more falls before the woman really began to look determined... indeed, almost angry, as she had before with Sabin. Now, Terra knew, Celes was finally using all her strength. She was no longer holding back. Terra was no longer being treated like a delicate flower, she was finally being taken seriously.
Before this moment, Terra had promised herself she would keep to the ground and not use her new-found esper powers to her advantage; no flying, and certainly no magic, but now it was severely tempting to give in. Celes was really trying her hardest. It was a struggle just to keep up.
The warrior lunged forward, slicing downward with her sword and giving the same sort of cry she might give while charging the enemy on the field of battle. With a loud crack from the clashing wooden weapons, Terra was pushed back and only just managed to shift to the side and deflect the blow without losing her balance.
Terra hadn't fought someone in this new body of hers before. There was a nagging desire to drop her weapon, crouch low and fight with her hands, as though her body instinctively knew that was the natural way for her esper half to fight. She tried her best to ignore the feeling; this was a practice match after all, not a fight to the death. It didn't help that she was used to fighting with two blades... she had to be so much more careful when fighting with just one.
Only an instant passed before Celes charged again, landing a series of strikes that began knocking wooden splinters off both their weapons.
The fierce look in those eyes was distracting, and when Terra was forced backwards she tripped and found herself on her back. She gasped when Celes landed on top of her and quickly pressed her mangled wooden practice sword against her neck. She stared deeply into her eyes, breathing heavily with an almost crazed looked of triumph on her face.
That nagging, anxious feeling returned but about a thousand times more powerful than before. Terra felt hot again, but this heat was concentrated somewhere entirely different. She didn't know what to make of that either.
Celes wasn't moving and Terra felt trapped, cornered as though by a wild animal, but oddly, uncomprehendingly, the sensation wasn't as terrifying as it should've been. Strands of blonde hair freed from the woman's ponytail brushed against her face. Every bit of skin those hairs touched burned like a fire.
The warrior's blue eyes bored into hers as they both continued to gasp for breath. "Terra?" Celes began, her voice harsher and deeper than she had ever heard it before.
The nearby tower bell began tolling. Celes shook her head and looked up. Quickly she mastered herself, "I should... uh... take a shower, I think," she breathed, quickly rising to her feet without her usual grace. Once standing she nervously offered a hand to Terra and pulled her up. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"
Terra could only shake her head. She wasn't hurt - confused, definitely - but not hurt.
...
Later that evening...
...
The choreographer was remarkably patient with her considering she had never danced before in her life. The routine was actually deceptively simple and all the other girls had been really kind and understanding regarding her complete lack of experience. And she was surprised by how much she enjoyed the dancing.
Still, it was surreal spending so much time with eleven men and women all dressed up to look exactly like her; a little make-believe esper family. Her dance partner was a man named Ramón, from some small town on the south coast. He was nice, and handsome like Edgar but with much shorter hair, though his accent was so thick that she could barely understand a word he said.
She tapped her long nails against the countertop she was leaning against. What was Celes doing now, she wondered. In all the days she had been here, she hadn't had any opportunity to watch the woman perform. Unfortunately, Maria and the fairies were never on the stage at the same time. She really hoped she would get the chance to see Celes sing before they all had to leave.
Men and women, fellow fairies mostly, were chatting to each other in this large dressing room as the artists removed their makeup. Once they found out that Terra's 'makeup' was in fact completely natural, many began to carefully avoid her. However, a few cast-members found her uniqueness fascinating and kept her company while all her Returner friends were away. None of them were here now though and she felt her loneliness keenly. Celes, she knew, was practicing up in Maria's room and probably wouldn't want to be disturbed tonight.
Behind her, she heard loud banging sounds as the stage scenery was being moved about. That was followed by a hysterical shout from what sounded like the impresario. Everything here seemed to be a bit chaotic to her, but perhaps that was normal in this business?
"Terra?"
The woman was surprised to hear one of the fairies call out her name. The young woman's name was Kiri. She had very pale skin and bright, green eyes, but her naturally dark hair was as pink as Terra's now. Her pointed, prosthetic ears had been removed earlier, so she looked almost human. Totally human, probably, if you compared her to some of those young people in Zozo...
But unlike Terra, Kiri actually had a real singing role as one of the queen's entourage. Her voice was very pretty, she thought, kind of like silk.
"How are you feeling?" the woman asked, an ever present smile on her face. Kiri was probably the closest person she had to a friend amongst the cast and crew, Celes excepted of course. She was friendly, upbeat and - for whatever reason - enjoyed Terra's company. They ended up spending a lot of time together since all her Returner friends were always so busy.
"I'm okay," Terra said, shrugging a bit. She stared back at her reflection in the giant wall mirror and realized that she was almost used to the way she looked now.
"You're not nervous about tomorrow?"
Terra shook her head.
"Good. Good!" Kiri said, sitting down on the stool next to her. "Look, I – uh – wanted to ask you something. About Celes, I mean."
That got Terra's attention. "Celes?"
"Yeah. You know her right?"
She gave a little humble shrug. Everyone seemed to know that she and Celes were friends. Terra was practically the only person that Maria's stand-in spoke to aside from the director and the two men she would be singing and dancing with in the upcoming performance.
"Is it true what they're saying about her?"
Terra's brow scrunched up at the question. "I... don't know. What do they say about her?"
Kiri looked around nervously, then she gently grabbed Terra's arm and pulled her away to a corner of the room, well out of earshot of the others. "I heard that she likes..." at Terra's uncomprehending expression, she reluctantly continued in a whisper, "you know, men and women."
She didn't know if her blush was noticeable when she had pink skin, but Terra was certainly blushing now. "Oh... um, yeah," she said lamely.
The woman was smiling again, but still she whispered, "Do you think she'd be interested... in someone like me?"
A gulp. "I - uh, don't really know."
Kiri pouted. "You don't think I'm her type..."
She shook her head. "I don't really know her type. We've only really known each other for a few months."
Kiri frowned. "Oh... it's just…" she sighed dreamily, "she's a general… or was one anyway. That's so amazing! I've tried talking to her, but I never know what to say. I just end up gaping at her like a fish, or babbling like an idiot. She's nice though. She smiled that one time we actually spoke. Oh, she's so beautiful when she smiles. Completely unlike Maria... when she smiles at you, you can tell it's always fake and -"
Terra remained silent during all this babbling. Celes was pretty famous. Did she have a lot of fans like this? Oh, she suddenly realized that Kiri was looking at her expectantly.
"So, should I ask her? You know her best."
The half-esper scratched the back of her head. Something told her to say no, though she knew not why. "Now isn't really the best time..."
She expected a poor reaction, but Kiri's face actually brightened a bit. "You're right!" she cried out, so loudly that some of the others in the room turned to look at them for a moment. "I should wait until after the performance, so it won't distract me if says no... or yes," she drawled out the last word, and her expression made it seem like she imagining the latter. Terra, of course, had actually meant that now wasn't the best time because they were about to commandeer an airship and fly it to Vector, but perhaps it was better this way. Locke was pretty adamant that she tell the cast and crew as little as possible about their plans or why they were really here.
And besides, what if Celes did say yes to her? For some reason, she didn't like the idea.
"Thank you so much, Terra," Kiri said as she gave her a surprisingly strong hug. "You're a real friend!"
She practically danced out of the room, leaving Terra looking after her in confusion. Strange. She didn't feel like much of a friend...
"Must I forget you? Our solemn promise?
Will autumn take the place of spring?
What shall I do? I'm lost without you.
Speak to me once more!"
...
Out of the mist, Draco appeared before her eyes, his light skin and polished armor shining in the moonlight like something out of a dream.
For a moment she stood there in shocked silence, she could barely even see his face, but when she caught a hint of his gentle smile, she rushed to him as he held out a hand for her to take. "Come, Maria!" he said, his voice sounding strangely ethereal and distant, like it was coming from far away somehow, "Follow my lead."
One arm wrapped reassuringly around her back, his other hand holding gently on to hers they began to dance. There was music coming from... somewhere. But that didn't matter to her right now. He was really here. It wasn't her imagination. She knew he would come back for her.
She looked up into his bright blue eyes, feeling completely safe and happier than she ever had in her life.
The morning sun lit the scene as they danced and she lost herself in it. Surely, regaining one's love thought lost forever was the greatest joy a person could ever experience. Then she looked over his shoulder. She had been wrong; there was no sun, it was still much to dark, but everything was lit with a disturbing orange flickering light. The city - her city - was in flames.
"Draco!" she whimpered, but he only embraced her tighter as if it was all he could do to protect her from the coming storm.
She buried her face into his shoulder as she the sounds of explosions and crumbling buildings began to come from every direction. Tears dripped onto his polished armor. Somehow, without a word, she knew the end was coming. The walls of the castle shook and fell one by one, yet every falling stone and beam missed them as they continued their slow dance.
Then she heard the chants of troops, "Hurrah! Hurrah!" As they came on, they drowned out the growing cries and wails of her people. She felt the vibrations of hundreds of men marching in unison and knew they would soon be here.
Looking back up, she stared in disbelief at her lover's face. Long green hair flowed out of his helmet now. Then a flash from an exploding bomb lit his, or rather her, face.
She gasped. "Terra?"
The woman looked down on her. Her expression was one of tenderness and love. It held her enraptured, even as the clamor of marching troops grew closer and closer. Terra gently brushed some stray hairs from Celes' shocked face, then placed a finger over the blonde's mouth when she tried to speak.
Suddenly, hands tore her away, and Celes looked on in horror as a sword blade quickly ran Terra through from behind.
Crying out as the body crumpled before her, Celes could see who had done it... it was her. It was Celes herself, dressed in the armor of an Imperial general.
Her mirror image grinned evilly back at her as she pushed Terra's dead body off her sword with a gauntleted hand, kicking it with a bloody boot for good measure. Then she held the blood stained weapon high above Celes' head for all to see. "Long live Emperor Gestahl!" she cried to a thundering chorus of cheers. Then, mercifully, the sword fell.
…
Celes lay on her bed clutching her pillow, her sheets scattered to the floor. It was only a dream - she knew that - but what she had seen wouldn't leave her mind.
She knew she shouldn't dwell on it. But that was the kind of thing she had told herself a thousand times when she carrying out the instructions of the emperor. Dreams as disturbing as that one were a pretty common occurrence for her ever since she'd killed her first human. Perhaps she should dwell on it. Perhaps she deserved to spend the rest of her life dwelling on it.
Struggling to master herself, the woman finally threw the pillow aside and sat up. Briefly, she considered getting dressed and preparing herself for the long day ahead, but the memories of her dream refused to fade. Death... year after year, battle after battle. That was her one contribution to the world... the dream had been right.
Without even thinking, she reached over to the phonograph machine at her bedside, returned the needle to its starting position and switched the machine on. All she could do was collapse onto the bed as the record began to play. Hopefully, the music would help her forget.
A familiar voice surprised her, 'You know, your subconscious is almost as bad as mine.' It was the first time Artemis had spoken to her in days.
'Yeah, I guess,' Celes thought. She really didn't want to talk to the esper now. Wearily, she rolled over and glanced at the clock; 7:36 am. She sighed. Tonight was the big night. In roughly fourteen hours they would either be on their way to Vector in an airship, or resorting to plan B: scrounging up enough gold to buy a ship and hoping that they reached the Southern Continent without running into the Imperial Navy.
It made the idea of having Terra fly each of them to Vector one at a time seem brilliant by comparison.
She lay there for a few more minutes before, in a sudden surge of anger, she pushed herself off the bed, and quickly made her way to the far end of the room, throwing open the doors leading to Maria's private balcony. Celes leaned tiredly on the heavy, stone railing, the anger leaving as quickly as it had appeared as she rubbed her face with her hand, trying to pull herself together. The balcony looked over a city of orange tiled roofs and elaborately decorated buildings. In the distance she could even see Owzer's mansion on top of the hill.
Maranda looked like this once, she remembered, but not anymore.
The burning of Maranda, the sight of men, women and children lying dead at the side of the road. All that blood was ultimately on her hands. All those lives ended because of an order she gave miles away in a tent somewhere. How many romances like Maria and Draco's had ended because of her? How many Jidoors had burned while her units marched inexorably towards Maranda?
She felt a tear run down her cheek. Bloody hell, she really didn't want to look in a mirror right now. She was a complete wreck.
The familiar voice returned, 'I hate to admit it, but you and I really are a lot alike.'
'What do you mean?' Celes asked.
Artemis ignored the question. 'You can't let your regrets rule your life. Take it from someone who's lived a very long time.'
The woman grunted. Since when did the esper in her head care so much?
'Stop being so damn hard on yourself.'
Another grunt was all the blonde would give in response.
A long silence followed, but for some reason Artemis was unusually chatty this morning. 'So...' she drawled. 'When's Terra coming back?'
Celes blinked. 'Terra? Why do you ask?'
'She's cute.'
That was the last thing she expected to hear and Celes shook her head as she tried to stifle a disbelieving laugh. 'I've never been happier that I can't read your mind.'
Artemis continued, unfazed, 'You should spend more time with her. She's a good influence on you.'
'Thanks, mom,' Celes thought sarcastically.
'Bitch.'
Celes chuckled to herself. Strangely, she felt just the tiniest bit better.
Her thoughts turned to tonight's performance. Never in her wildest dreams did she think she would one day be singing opera in front of twenty-five hundred people. "If only Gestahl could see me now..." she said aloud. He'd never believe it.
She tapped her hand against the railing. Despite it all, she had to admit that she'd had fun the past few days. It was nice to forget herself for a few days and play the role of someone else.
Again, she remembered her dream. Celes should've been nauseated at the idea of being anyone's damsel in distress, even Terra's. Clearly, that bizarre memory was a sign that she had been in Maria's shoes for far too long.
Besides, in her dream, Terra had been taller than her... that was so not the case in real life.
She muttered to herself, "Stupid dreams..."
Just then she heard the door open and knew instantly who it was without even looking. Soft feet padded along the floor, growing louder until at last Terra joined her at the railing, dressed in that same white shirt she normally wore when not in costume.
Celes continued looking at those roofs reflecting brightly in the morning sun. She could think of a million reasons why Terra should stay far away from her, but she couldn't give voice to them. Terra's presence was probably the only thing keeping her sane. It was the only thing left that she couldn't bear to lose.
Two sides of her warred with each other in her head: one side reasoning that Terra would better off the further away she was from Celes, the other side wanting Terra for herself. But was such a thing even possible?
"Celes, what's wrong?" Terra asked. The woman gasped when she got a better look at Celes' face. "You've been crying."
The concern in her voice made Celes' heart ache. She couldn't bear to look into those worried blue eyes, so she shook her head and kept her attention on the distant horizon to keep herself from crying again. "Just a stupid dream," she mumbled.
"What was it about?"
The blonde woman kept silent, she wouldn't tell her about that dream. It was stupid anyway...
Without really thinking, Terra placed a hand on the woman's bare upper back. She used her healing magic to see if there was anything physically wrong with her friend, but all she could find were knotted muscles.
Celes made to stand up but the younger woman's hand kept her in place easily. "Stay still, let me see."
The blonde did as she was instructed. Out of the corner of her eye she watched Terra cautiously run her hand up and down her spine, her hand glowing with the green light of healing magic, her face showing genuine concern.
"You won't tell me what's wrong," Terra said, "but the muscles of your upper back are all knotted up." Those surprisingly soft clawed hands move up her back. "I can at least fix that…"
Celes squeezed her eyes shut and fought the urge to whimper. The contact felt way too good after such a horrible night.
"So," Terra began, trying to come up with something to distract the older woman as she worked on her back, "Are you ready for tonight?" It was on the tip of her tongue... what she really wanted to talk about was the strange feelings she'd had in Celes' presence yesterday, but she just couldn't do it. Certainly not now. Celes, of course, if she had been aware of Terra's discomfort, said nothing.
The woman sounded exhausted. She must not have slept well. "Yeah... I think so," she said with a yawn.
Terra frowned, the woman needed to be well rested if she was going to perform tonight. As she was thinking this a glow came from the pocket of her shorts. When she wasn't practicing her dancing she liked to carry one of the magicite stones with her. Ramuh said they were supposed to teach magic to whomever held them, but so far no one in their group had learned any such thing... but then they had all been rather busy lately.
In her mind she could hear a sweet female voice and it took some concentration before she could make out the words, 'Sleep,' it said.
Over the last few days Terra had spoken to each of the stones they had been given. The one she carried now was all that was left of the esper Siren, a beautiful, blonde haired woman. 'Siren?' she asked.
Without placing her hand over the stone she couldn't see the creature in her mind, but somehow she knew the esper was smiling reassuringly at her. 'Sleep,' she repeated.
Unknowingly, Celes interrupted them. "What happens in the grove scene, exactly?" She sort of knew the answer to that question already, but she hadn't really had much time to look over the scenes she wasn't in.
"Oh, um... well," Terra began, putting her conversation with Siren on hold for a moment, "that man, Draco, he gets wounded and flees into the forest... Then he's rescued and nursed back to health by the beautiful fairy queen. She falls in love with him, though I'm not really sure why. Anyway, he doesn't return her love and leaves in the night to rescue Maria. Or, um, something like that... I'm off stage when that happens."
Celes nodded as she tried to rub at her upper back. She ached in all sorts of strange places. Normally, it was a simple matter of healing herself to get rid of such pains, but she was too exhausted. Locke had better get back with more mana potions soon, she thought. He was on thin ice with her as it was. Wordlessly, Terra stopped her and replaced the woman's hand with her own. Slowly, the pain melted away.
"Is that normal?"
"Huh? Is what normal?" Celes mumbled.
"To fall in love so quickly, I mean?"
Another half-smile. "Sometimes," she said, her eyes now on the gardens below the balcony. "But in an opera? Always."
Terra continued working on the woman's back for another few minutes. She knew from personal experience that healing magic could feel very soothing when it was used lightly, as she was doing now. Then, in the silence, Siren spoke again. 'Sleep,' she repeated; a command this time, not a suggestion. Without warning, magic flowed through Terra's body, up her arm and into Celes' back. Immediately, the blonde woman slumped against the railing and began snoring lightly.
Panicking for half a second, Terra could only giggle when she realized what had actually happened. She stared disbelievingly first at Celes, then at her hand.
Looking at the next balcony over, she saw a dove cooing softly. She outstretched her hand to it. "Sleep," she commanded, and with that same rush of magic the bird slumped to the floor, eyes closed. Terra giggled again.
Gently, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the stone. She now knew a new magical spell thanks to this generous esper. "Thank you," she said out loud. In her mind she could see the woman inside smiling warmly back at her.
Still grinning, Terra picked up the sleeping woman, carried her through the doors and gently placed her back on the bed.
Next Chapter: The curtain rises.
Excessively long AN – I had to flesh out the plot of 'Maria and Draco' a bit in order for it to seem like it would take a full 2 ½ - 3 hours to perform, which is a typical length for your average opera. Setzer appears at the climax of act 1, which implies there is at least one more act to follow, so Draco's epic duel with Ralse actually occurs at what for my purposes I'm assuming to be the halfway point of the opera, or roughly ninety minutes in. Of course, all my little additions have been added without the permission of the Nobou Uematsu and Yoshinori Kitase, the two enormously talented people who wrote the score for this wonderful game.
All the minor characters that appear in this and the next chapter are named after some of my favorite real-life opera singers. Their personalities don't necessarily match though.
And don't worry, Kiri is just a very minor character, she's not intended to be any kind of obstacle between Celes and Terra's budding romance. I mostly threw her in there to make Terra jealous, even if she's too naive to realize it's jealousy she's feeling. :)
Oh, and if you've never heard it, I suggest going to Youtube and listening to the 'Distant Worlds' version of 'Maria and Draco'. It's quite nice, as are many of the other tracks on that album. You can buy the whole thing for nine USD on Amazon. That's like one British pound!*
*a slight exaggeration.