After Fall: The Stepmother's Secret
I knew something was odd when Snow told me that Rygdea had already hired a lawyer to represent me in the case against Bartholomew Estheim. Why, after all, would Estheim's boss go to such lengths for someone he knew only briefly during a crisis two years before? It wasn't like Rygdea and I were close - I don't think we've ever said more than a handful of words to eachother.
After speaking with Ronsenburg briefly on the phone, I only became more suspicious. The case, as far as I knew, wasn't complicated at all - even under the circumstances that we met, the both of us being l'cie and our assumption that Bartholomew Estheim was dead, legally I had no right to keep Hope from his father once I knew that Bartholomew was alive and well. Yet Ronsenburg assured me that the extenuating circumstances could be crucial in this particular case, and said he wanted to meet with me in person.
Honestly, Fang, I thought I was going to be kidnapped and beaten until I caved in to Estheim's demands. That's what I was expecting when I asked Sazh to go with me to Eden.
I wish I'd been right.
"What the hell is going on here?" Sazh demands loudly. We both stand up, our hands moving to our weapons as we watch Rygdea and Bartholomew Estheim walk through the door of Ronsenburg's office.
Maechen shuts the door behind them, and motions for all of us to sit. Rygdea and Estheim move towards the small sofa that sits against the wall, while Sazh and I reluctantly sit back in the chairs in front of Ronsenburg's desk.
"Forgive Maechen for the deception, Light." Rygdea says with a sad smile. "Didn't know if ya'd've come all this way to hear us out if he'd told ya the truth."
"The truth?" I repeat. I feel off-balance, my eyes focused on Estheim as he fidgets nervously with his glasses in his hands. At least he has the decency to look somewhat ashamed of himself.
"I'm sorry." Estheim says, looking up at me sorrowfully. "It had to look real, I couldn't take the chance that she would suspect me."
"What does that -" Sazh starts to ask, but Maechen interrupts him by clearing his throat loudly.
"If I may." Ronsenburg removes a folder from the stack of papers on the side of his desk and opens it, sliding it across the desk top so that Sazh and I can see its contents.
A picture is clipped to the left side of the folder, along with copies of official documents declaring the woman to be Sylvia Estheim, nee Nix. On the right side of the folder are reports of activities, jobs and associations that the new Mrs. Estheim has had over the years.
"What is this?" I ask, flipping through the reports carefully. There's nothing that really stands out about any of the reports, only a few minor, distant connections with anti-l'cie activities on Cocoon. To me, it looks like a typical report that could've been made on any average law-abiding citizen. I wonder if they're going to try to convince me this way, to see that Sylvia Estheim will be a good step-mother to Hope, so that I'll give up without much fuss. "Am I supposed to be impressed?"
"Do you notice something, anything unusual?" Maechen asks me.
If they think I'm going to cave in so easily, the three of them are gravely mistaken. I gave Hope my word that I would fight for him as best as I can - I'm not going to cave in over something so trivial. I flip through the reports again quickly, then glance back over at the left side of the folder.
I lift up the copy of Sylvia's marriage certificate to Estheim: beneath it is a copy of her school records - she'd gone to University in Eden and graduated at the top of her class with a degree in ancient languages and archaeology. Before that, Sylvia had been a model student apparently, though apparently she'd gotten into some trouble as a student in Eden's most prestigious junior high. The documents detailing what happened are missing, but that isn't so unusual, either. Most parents of such students pay large sums of money to seal those sorts of records.
I sigh heavily and flip that document over as well, and then I see it - or rather, don't see it.
"There's no birth record." I say softly.
Ronsenburg nods gravely, then looks to Estheim.
"I first met Sylvia Nix after Rygdea asked me to help him rebuild the cities of Cocoon. We were in the initial planning stages for the make-shift government, and Sylvia was a volunteer." Estheim begins. He shakes his head slowly before meeting my gaze. "I... At first, I thought it was fate. Nora was gone, and I thought Hope was sleeping in crystal somewhere on Pulse... it was nice to have someone to talk to, to ease the loneliness and guilt I felt. But..."
"She was good at hiding it at first." Rygdea says, slapping Estheim hard on the shoulder. "It was a real disaster up here back then, we were too busy tryin' ta fix the serious problems like food shortages and getting supplies where they needed ta be. The protests - the anti-l'cie protests - didn't start 'til that crash in New Eden. Everyone was blaming l'cie for the whole thing with Orphan, said if it weren't for you guys that those people wouldn't've died so needlessly. It just grew from there, 'til you couldn't walk ten feet without overhearing someone blaming l'cie for some misery of theirs."
"Around that time, Sylvia told me that her parents had been high-ranking Sanctum officials killed in the Seige of Eden. She said that the l'cie had been responsible for her parents' deaths, that she could never forgive the l'cie for what they'd done to her." Bartholomew frowns and clasps his hands tightly together in his lap. "She thought that my wife and son had been killed during those last few minutes, when Cocoon began to fall towards Pulse. She told me that I should never forgive the l'cie either, and I... I didn't say anything. This woman had stood by me when Rygdea and I had only started to organize the survivors, she had cooked for us, and listened as I spoke of plans for a new Academy, a new government and way of life for the people of Cocoon. She encouraged me to do everything that I could, everything that I desired... I loved her for that, so much that I overlooked the memories of my deceased wife and the son I thought was lost to me forever."
"As for me, I'd been suspicious for a while by then. I mean, Bart here might be smart but Sylvia..." Rygdea trails off as Bartholomew and I glare at him. His implication is valid, though: from her picture, Sylvia is a very beautiful woman, and her background information suggests that she's used to a certain lifestyle. It's unusual to see such a woman take an interest in someone like Bartholomew Estheim who, according to Hope, has a history of forgetting about his family in favor of continuing his research projects. Even with her education and background, I would have expected Sylvia to go after someone more like Rygdea - I mean, why go after the director of a school when Rygdea is an easier, more powerful target?
"Rygdea told me later that he'd had Maechen ask around discretely for all the information he could find on Sylvia. I was... really angry with him for that, for a long time, too." Bartholomew continues. "But then he showed me what they'd found, or rather, what they hadn't found. It didn't make sense - the Sanctum kept excellent documents on all of their members, all of the extended family of their officials... copies of those records were kept in every major city all over Cocoon, and yet we couldn't find one single record to mention Sylvia Nix? It was statistically impossible. We decided to keep a sharper eye on Sylvia, that I would play along with her as if nothing had changed, while Rygdea would have her followed in secret."
"In the months that followed, we discovered very few connections between Sylvia and the organizers of the anti-l'cie protests. Honestly, I was starting to wonder if I'd been too paranoid - that maybe I was wrong about Sylvia. Ol' Bart here must've felt the same, since he went and proposed to her, but it's a good thing he did!" Rygdea chimes in seriously. "When they went out to celebrate, I personally searched Sylvia's apartment. I almost gave up on finding anything at all, but when I went to leave, I noticed this statue in the corner of the living area. How many people do you know that have statues of Lindzei in their homes? I don't know any, and when I looked at the statue, I knew why. In a small compartment hidden near the base, I found this."
Rygdea leans forward and hands a folded piece of paper to me.
I open it slowly, my eyes moving first to the official Sanctum seal in the bottom right corner of the document. It is a birth-record of sorts, but not one I'm familiar with. The mother is listed first: Suzy Nix, age nineteen. She's listed as being unmarried, and a small box below her information states that she was paid handsomely for her services as a surrogate. Beneath the information for the mother is the area where the father's information should be, but all the lines are blank except for the seal of Galenth Dysley.
"Is this a joke?" I ask, handing the document to Sazh. Sazh gasps like he's been burned, then tosses the document on Rosenburg's desk. "Dysley was a fal'cie."
"It's not a joke." Rygdea insists. "We did some diggin' around. There've been hundreds of Primearchs in Cocoon, some men, some women. All of them powerful, and all of them had birth records like Sylvia's where one parent's information was blank 'cept for the seal of the last-reigning Primarch. We have statements from a few Sanctum survivors that Sylvia was officially being groomed as Dysley's replacement prior to the Purge. Those are facts."
"So, let's see if I got this straight." Sazh says, scratching the back of his head with his hand. "Hope's dad married a half-fal'cie woman who wants to exact revenge on the l'cie who killed her father. Mr. Estheim here went along with it all, and threatened to sue Lightning so he could put Hope into a dangerous situation with a dangerous half-human woman who may or may not want to torture and or kill his son who is one of the l'cie responsible for Dysley's death. So... what the hell is it that ya'll are trying to accomplish with this?"
"We don't think Sylvia's after revenge." Bartholomew replies. "If she'd wanted revenge, she had plenty of opportunity to exact that on her own, but she didn't. She seems specifically interested in my son for some reason. We haven't quite figured out why."
Sazh and I exchange a silent glance - if Sylvia is half-fal'cie, it's likely that she, too, remembers the paradox timelines and the events that transpired in Nova Chrysallia. She might possess knowledge that Hope once was the vessel of Bhunivelze, the fal'cie God. Perhaps she thinks she can recall Bhunivelze and ressurect her father if she has access to Hope.
I look down at my watch - it's getting late. I told Serah and Hope that I'd call them after I left Maechen's office to go see Rygdea, but after everything that's happened, I don't think I can risk telling them the truth over the phone. I stand up and run a hand through my hair - what a mess this is all becoming!
"I need to call my sister." I say. "I'll be back in a minute."
"Will you help us, Miss Farron?" Bartholomew asks, standing up and reaching out to grasp my hand.
"For Hope's sake, I will." I say as I pull my arm out of his grasp and walk towards the door.
I have a bad feeling about this.
~ fin?
Notes: In FFXIII-2 there's mention of a woman who was once Primarch. That was the inspiration for Sylvia's lineage.
