Chapter 12: Escape Plan
Soon after Mathias' body slumped to the floor, Seifer and I left the inn together and wandered the streets of Mysidia. I was surprised that a few of the mages in the town were walking around so early in the morning. We stopped one of them and asked for directions to Lulu or Steena's house. We were shown the way and we walked to the location of the house. I knocked on the door a few times. After a couple of minutes, the door opened and Steena stood at the entrance. She was beautiful in her long nightgown and her hair was down.
"Eternity, Seifer...what are you two doing here?" she asked.
"We have a problem that affects Mysidia," I started.
"Please come in, this town has ears," she told us. She held the door open and we made our way in. After Steena closed the door, she lead us into a sitting room. I noticed Steena's hair went well past her knees. She motioned to the couch and Seifer and I both sat down on it. "What is this about?" She didn't sound angry at being woken up so early, which was something I was a little surprised about.
"The Galbadian army has an attack force North of Mysidia," I started. Lulu came into the room, sat on the arm of a chair and listened to the conversation.
"How do you know this?" she asked. "Are they right outside the town?"
I shook my head, "No, I was practicing the astral projection techniques Ariana and her charges taught me yesterday. I was exploring this continent and I found them, they are about five miles away from here."
"This is disturbing," Lulu put in. "I wonder what they want?"
"I got close enough to their camp to hear some of the soldiers talking...and they appeared to have been ordered to destroy Mysidia and everything associated with it," I told them. "After I came back to my body, Mathias asked me to take him to see it and I did."
"Do you know any other useful information?" Lulu asked.
I nodded to her, "They have Cockatrices and Red Dragons in their control. They also have tanks. They plan on attacking tomorrow night or the next early morning when everyone is asleep."
Steena looked at Lulu and told her, "We must come up with a plan."
"Mathias astral...what was it again?" Seifer turned to look at me for the answer.
"Projection," I smiled weakly.
"Yeah, he did that and went to Garden to tell the Headmaster to see what can be done," Seifer told the two women.
"The question is, how will we protect our town and the people in it?" Steena asked to nobody in particular.
"Can your magic help?" Seifer asked.
"The Galbadians have thousands of soldiers in that camp..." I put in.
Seifer looked at me again. "Would the citizens of Mysidia be able to take on that many?"
"While we are powerful mages, we are not able to hold back an army of that size," Lulu started.
"Especially when they have magical animals and monsters to disable our magic abilities," Steena finished.
"Still, we must stay and fight to protect our homes," Lulu continued.
"What about the children?" I asked. "Surely they wouldn't have to fight? I mean, could they be evacuated?"
The sisters turned to look at each other. "We may very well have to," Steena said. "I know we will not win this battle, however we must find a way to get our arcane artifacts and books out of the town as well, before they fall into the wrong hands."
"Don't you mages have a teleportation spell or something to escape?" Seifer asked.
"There are a few spells, however, it will not be enough to get everybody in the town out of Mysidia," Lulu answered.
"If Garden has a way to evacuate, would you?" I asked.
"It is possible," Steena thought.
"But it took us almost a week to get here from Garden," Seifer pointed out.
I nodded, "Yes I know, but there is a Garden near here...Trabia Garden."
"That's right," Seifer's face brightened. "Maybe they will have transportation vehicles!"
"We also have our transportaion ship. It can hold about thirty or forty people. It may not be much but it makes all the difference," I smiled.
"Does your ship also have a way to protect itself, such as weapons in case of a persuit?" Lulu asked.
"I think it does," I told her.
"We can place our books into the SeeD ship in case the rest of us don't get out," Lulu told Steena and Steena nodded.
Steena turned her gaze at Seifer and myself, "Lulu and I must go and speak to the Mysidian Council Elders. Perhaps the two of you can tell the other SeeD what we discussed and the possible plans of action?" I nodded this time.
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"So, we can go to Trabia Garden and get transports?" Solaria asked.
"Yeah," Mathias began. "Headmaster Cid already called the Garden on a private line and has everything set up. Only problem is, we have hundreds of people to transport and we need to find a way to evacuate the town."
Mathias had gone back to Balamb Garden to talk to Cid in person...or should I say body double. Body doubles were something that Ariana taught me yesterday. It allows the astral body to temporarily become solid so they could talk and receive information. I taught Mathias the technique and while his body double was talking to Cid, his physical body was halfway conscious, so he knew what was going on around him. That way, he wouldn't need the help of another student in order to speak to Cid.
"Could we use vehicles to get to Trabia Garden?" Xu asked.
"The only problem with that idea is, the Galbadians might have the town under surveillance," Johann replied. I began pacing around the room.
"What are you doing?" Johann asked me.
"Thinking," was my reply. I ran my hands through my ebony hair and my white bangs fell back into my eyes.
"Let's review the facts," Glory suggested. "First off...the Galbadian army of thousands is to the North of here."
"So we would need to stay away from the North of town...which leaves us with the South and East," Seifer interrupted.
"Right," Glory said. "We currently have one SeeD transport ship which can hold about forty people...we need to get some of the adults and children to be aboard that ship as soon as possible and get the ship to head back to Balamb Garden."
"We might need to split our group up into two," Johann said. "One group stays here and help the town and the other group go with the SeeD ship in case something happens along the way." Mathias nodded.
"Who should go and who should stay?" I asked.
"Which group would you like to be in?" Mathias asked as he turned to me.
"I would like to stay here and help," I answered.
"Okay...Eternity, you and Seifer will stay here with Glory, Brett and Xu. Johann, Solaria and myself will be aboard the ship. My group will help the people on the ship and your group will help the citizens out of the town," Mathias told us. "That way, each group would have the help of a Sorceress or Sorcerer."
"Steena and Lulu said something about arcane books and items..." Seifer began.
"They do not want their ancient knowledge to fall into the hands of the soldiers," I explained.
Mathias nodded his understanding, "That would be bad...Galbadia already has the most powerful military in the world, we don't need them having even more power at their hands."
Solaria told us, "After we hear word of what to do, we will begin our plan...we have little time left."