A/N: I would really appreciate some of those reviews right about
now.I'm running out of ideas. Also, extremely sorry if this is getting
confusing.but of course, everything's confusing in the mind of Kyonae
Falcona. Anyway, I can't tell you anything about what's going to happen,
or it'll spoil the chapter. Please R/R! Please! My brother is being very
annoying (his pen name is Raptor Dundee or something like that), telling me
my story mustn't be all that good if no one's reviewing it. Prove him
wrong, please, before I break his nose! Oh, and by the way, Ifala.YOU READ
MY MIND. Finally someone spoke up. It is so much easier to write in the
3rd person.I just thought everyone liked it in 1st. Well, it shall stop as
of now! It's way too hard! Thank you, Ifala.
Chapter Eighteen: In The Corridors Of The Mages
Kyonae laid there on the iced over floor for what seemed like hours, maybe even days, hell, what seemed like years. She was no longer cold. She was the very being of cold. All she felt was sadness, deep, extreme sadness that flooded through her empty being, a sadness that for once she couldn't elude. It felt like Trabia again, only a hundred times worse, numb, frozen to the very soul, held down by a burden of helpless anger and hate. But this time, Kyonae could not cry out loud enough for anyone to hear her, nor would anyone care. Even she could not find the strength and will power to care anymore.
Lying there, many visions passed her eyes, glimpses of what Maika had left behind when she snatched away her very being, memories that had refused to dislodge themselves from her heart. All were bad. The day she left Edea's Orphanage, the day Trabia was destroyed, the many, many bad memories of the hospital, the day she received her fated scar, all the way up to where she was now, watching herself lying hopelessly on the floor, waiting to die. But something wouldn't allow her to die, not yet.
One memory flashed before Kyonae, and she was very confused for a moment. Before her eyes played the remembrance of the SeeD Ball, dancing with Seifer. Through the numbness Kyonae could feel the warmth of his hand in hers, the brightness of the lights; she could see his scarred, yet warm and kind face before her, and could still hear the music.
Someday out of the blue.
Someday out of the blue.maybe, someday. But right now, Kyonae was still in the blue. The vision disappeared, and though she searched and searched she could not find it. Obviously it had been a good memory, and Maika had sensed it and snatched it away.
The newfound sorceress suddenly heard footfalls outside of her prison; she heard soft voices and whispers and three presences. She smelled dust and soil and old stone. In her increasingly clouding mind flashed three images, almost instantaneously but she caught them before they slipped back into subconscious: Laguna, her father, Squall, her brother, and Seifer Almasy himself. Then they vanished and Kyonae was plunged into a different atmosphere. She heard louder voices and eleven presences. Humid wind blew across her face; she smelled coming rain and heard rumbling thunder. The images flashed into her mind just as the other three had. Rinoa, a sorceress' air around her. Selphie. Zell, the martial arts specialist. Quistis, her kind instructor. Irvine, a hero in her eyes. Fujiin, a silent friend and tough warrior. Raijiin, annoying yet brave. Three Dratilian mages named Eve, Ember and Naomi, and finally her dear sister Ellone who Kyonae had never met, smiling back at her in that fleeting moment she was there.
They were coming for her. All of them. Coming to rescue her, and cause Maika's downfall. Kyonae sensed them, as she could suddenly sense the whispering of the guards down the hall about the celebration, the mice scattering about in the darkness of the dungeons- and even the dark, evil presence she felt in the tower, waiting, blacker than black itself like the Iaret, but worse. It was resting, gaining energy and power as fast as she was losing it, its very existance making her shudder in a quick spasm of fear.
The Dark One, Kyonae Falcona.be aware of the Dark One.
The voice, one Kyonae had never heard in her life and yet so familiar, with a thick, cryptic Dratilian accent, a young woman's voice, whispered vibrantly through her mind, melting momentarily through the ice and then was gone. Her thoughts quickly diverted back to her friends, who were coming ever closer.
They were coming.and yet she felt no hope. Only shame.
The trio entered the dank, dark space that was the Castle Dungeons. The air was heavy and still. They looked up occasionally to see old, forgotten skeletons hanging by their bony wrists, decaying bits of sinew holding them together. It wasn't a pleasant sight.
"Ouch," Squall muttered, staring at one skeleton whose jawbone was wide open in a frozen scream, a sword plunged through his rib cage and into the slick stone wall. "That obviously hurt."
"No kidding," Seifer agreed with him, looking at one that hung on the wall in chains, but its body below the waist was nowhere to be found. "These guys really knew how to live.and beat the crap out of each other."
Laguna had turned a strange, slight shade of green and didn't make any comment.
Suddenly they heard the sounds of guards coming swiftly toward the dungeons. They quickly pulled up their cloak's hoods, covering their faces entirely in the darkness.
Two guards came into sight, and spotted them as well. "Hey! You!" they cried out abruptly.
Seifer's black-gloved hand went swiftly for his Hyperion's handle. Had they been caught? Not without a fight, they wouldn't. They all froze; the blond heard the slight sound of Squall's Lionheart's metallic blade sliding slowly out of its scabbard as well, and Laguna going for his gun.
".It is your turn to guard the Falcona girl. You were assigned the 18:00 shift, remember?"
Squall, Seifer and Laguna all relaxed; their weapons at ease. "Yes sir, thank you sir," Squall said quickly, walking swiftly past them as Seifer and Laguna followed, faces down. "We shall go and guard the Falcona girl, sir."
"That is what I like to hear from my cadets," the other guard said approvingly, yawning. "Oy, I need a nap."(author's note: so do I!)
They turned around the corner, up the stairs, leaving the dungeons, breathing out a sigh of relief. "Well, so far so good," Seifer shrugged. "Which way do we go now?"
"What? I thought you knew," Laguna protested quietly.
"Oh never mind. We'll just have to split up, that's all," Squall said simply.
"Split up? Son, do you know how big this castle is.?"
"We've gotta try it," interrupted Seifer determinedly. He didn't give a damn how the large the castle was. "Squall, you go that way.and Laguna, you can go down that hall.and I'll go this way. We've gotta find Kyonae sooner or later. Maika can wait."
Without another word they all went separate ways down the four way corridor, the torches on the walls lighting the way.
***
The large group entered the dungeons at exactly 18:00 hours, but there was no sign of Squall, Laguna or Seifer. Ellone became very scared for their lives, and the skeletons hanging on the walls did not help.
She was scared for Kyonae as well. Like Laguna she'd seen her for the first time at the Ball, and it had been like a static shock, a chill down her spine when Ellone momentarily caught her glance. She had known the gunblading woman was special in some way from the very start, though Ellone hadn't known about the letter. Now, it seemed that her dear brave sister had gotten herself very involved in something that was hard to explain, and the quiet dark haired young woman hoped to find her soon. Then they'd all be together again, a perfect family, and the past would be forgotten.
Of course, that nagging voice in the back of Ellone's head said, it was the past that brought them all together from the very beginning.
They miraculously passed the sleeping guards without any trouble, as they snored louder than their footsteps. Naomi had told them that they should be able to move fairly freely here, since all the guards were out in the streets for the celebration. They traveled up the stairs and came into a four way corridor.
"These are the Corridors of the Mages. This is where the mages of the royal army lived and studied in the days of Queen Lunora and her family. But they are quiet now, inhabited by naught but mice and dust."
The fire mage sneezed loudly, her mane of red hair falling in her face. She sniffed, rubbing her nose lightly. "Sniff.I'll say."
"Which way do we go now?" Selphie whispered quietly.
Naomi studied the corridors, thinking. "Hmm.I do not know. I know the Sorceress' chambers are back that way, but to Kyonae.I do not know. She could have been placed anywhere."
"Can't you.I don't know.point her out?" Ember asked, shrugging.
"I could.just a moment." Naomi closed her eyes and inhaled, lowering into deep concentration. For a moment the air around her shimmered invisibly, vibrating. Then, her eyes and mouth snapped wide open in shock, and she stumbled to the beautifully carpeted floor, gasping slightly.
"Naomi! What happened? Are you all right?" Eve gasped quietly, pulling up the fallen thunder mage.
Naomi was dazed, catching her breath and shuddering as she spoke. "Something stopped me.it was keeping Kyonae away from me.it swiped at me, it felt so cold.an evil shadow."
"Well, you'll not be trying that again," said Eve protectively, patting the shell-shocked mage soothingly on the shoulder. "We'll have to find her on our own."
"Then we've gotta split up into groups," Ember quickly suggested, glancing sideways at Irvine. "I'll take Quistis and Irvine, and go down the west corridor!"
"Then I shall take Zell and Selphie go down the south wing," the calm flower mage volunteered.
"I will lead Sorceress Rinoa and Ellone down the north corridor. But that leaves us with only two to go down the east corridor, and without one of us to guide them." Naomi gazed silently at Raijiin and Fujiin. "Will you be all right?"
"Hey, we can handle this, ya know? Don't worry about it, ya know?" Raijiin said casually, waving off the concerned remark.
"WE. SEIFER. FIND. BEST FRIEND. DO ANYTHING," Fujiin replied determinedly, standing proudly beside Raijiin. Of course. They were Seifer's posse. Ellone barely knew them, but by the look in their eyes she could tell they'd search a hundred castles if needed be. True friendship. "BE. FINE. DON'T. WORRY."
"Very well, then," Naomi nodded. "We must be going. Rinoa, Ellone, follow me."
They parted ways there, and Ellone shivered though she wasn't cold. Something told her that something terrible and fearful was to happen this night.
1 Squall, my brother, be careful.
***
Just by the feeling of the still, musty dry air, Squall Leonhart knew this corridor hadn't been traveled by in a long time. This was the north corridor; his dad had taken the west and Seifer the east. He kicked up small wispy clouds of dust as he walked, as it lightly coated everything from the intricately designed carpet, which was a pale blue, to the portrait covered walls, the portraits themselves strangely free of any dust at all. The faces of royalty and powerful mages seemed to stare blankly and icily down at him as he passed with pale blue eyes uncannily like his own, and mostly all of them had brown hair or white, or in one case, blue black, under a portrait labled Marinia Elmenti.
He felt strange. He wasn't going to puke or anything, not that kind of strange. Squall felt strange, as if he'd been here before, like he knew where he was going. There were many doors along the way, and the gunblader tried them all, but they were all bolted shut. He felt as if he'd walked a mile down this corridor, and judging on the castle's size, he probably had.
Finally Squall saw the end of the seemingly endless hall. It split into two side corridors, but the portrait at the end of this particular hall was what intrigued him.
It was a portrait of a young woman, about his age, with strange yet beautiful pure, white hair like a unicorn's, a perfectly rounded pale face, deep pink lips and vaguely familiar silvery blue eyes that stared deeply into him even from the distance.
Squall walked forward until he was about ten feet away from it, then abruptly stopped, unable to move. He suddenly felt very sluggish, tired and dizzy. His eyes fell down to the name on the portrait plaque:
Princess Katarina Falcona.
Suddenly the hallway was bright in torchlight, immaculate of dust and a fresh scent of life in the air, the rooms within the corridor buzzing with the energy of many young men and women studying spells behind the doors. The hall was empty, except for the little boy with shaggy brown hair standing on the pale blue carpet. Two figures passed him, Katarina and a young man with fine blond hair and crystalline blue eyes.
Katarina saw him. "Now Squall," she sighed, smiling warmly yet nervously. "What are you doing out here? Mother will be worried sick when she finds you out of the nursery. Where is Sa-Shenu?" she picked him up from under the arms, hugging him warmly.
"S-sorry, Katie," Squall stuttered. "I just w-wanted to play with you."
"We shall play later, my little brother. We shall play for a million hours! But right now Sir Darion and I have matters to take care of. Run along, and I shall catch up."
Without waiting to see if he obeyed, she turned and walked briskly for the portrait of herself, Sir Darion following. They stopped before it, making sure no one was around. Squall hid in a doorway, peeking out to watch them as they both took something small out of their pockets, two falcon necklaces.
"Are you sure this will work, Darion? Your father is no fool."
"It must work, Katarina, it will! He would not have the courage to use the pendant anyway, with the powers it possesses.he is no fool, but a coward he may be."
"I do hope you are right, my love.come, there is still much work to do to the fake necklace if it is to look exactly like mine." she grabbed the frame of the giant portrait and pushed, and the picture swung inward on a hinge to reveal the small doorway to a secret room. Darion climbed in, and Katarina closed it behind her as she went in, looking around one final time.
Squall snapped out of the trance, now on his knees on the old carpet, the air heavy, still and relatively dead. He coughed and gagged on the dust that flew up into his scarred face as he fell. Falcona.that was Kyonae's last name! Squall wondered, thinking back to the story he had overheard Naomi telling Seifer.
As his cerulean eyes cleared and the dust settled back onto the ground, Squall saw something that made the hairs on the back of his neck bristle.
Footprints.
Yes, footprints. Footprints, belonging to a woman, had left their mark in the dust-caked floor, appearing right in front of him, traveling down the rest of the hallway, and disappeared at the front of Princess Katarina's portrait. They hadn't been there before, Squall was sure. How the hell.
He slowly made his way toward the portrait, sweat running down his forehead and his heart beating rapidly in his chest. Squall had never believed in ghosts, but of course, an experience like this tends to change one.
Laying his gloved hand on the ornate frame, he pushed gently into it, half hoping it wouldn't open. But it did open, slowly, creaking with age and showering a snow of dust down upon his form, leading into darkness.
Squall lifted a torch from its hold on the wall. "Fire," he muttered softly, and flecks of red fire spurted from his fingertips, lighting it. Holding his breath, mustering all of his courage, Squall Leonhart climbed into the secret room of Katarina Falcona.
***
"Gosh, it's dark in here," Quistis Trepe heard Irvine say.
"Just a second," Ember answered, and after a moment a small flame flared up wthin her palm, flickering soothingly through the darkness. The two looked on in amazement. "Uh- doesn't that, uh-hurt?" Quistis asked falteringly.
"Heck no, Quistis. Been doin' this ever since I was a child. It's pretty easy once ya get the hang of it. Wanna try?"
"Hmm, no thank you," she politely refused.
Ember shrugged. "Your loss."
Quistis looked around in the dim light of the flame. Many portraits hung on the walls, mostly of people with flaming red hair and stunning green eyes, grinning ferociously as they stood frozen within their frames. One mage looked especially fiery, a massive mane of curly red hair and bright green eyes, a cocksure grin set on her painted face.Kristinia Elmenti.
"Aren't they lovely lookin' people?" Ember sighed dreamily. "I think the Elmenti mage is my great great great great great grandmother or something.yep, this is the Corridor of Fire. The greatest fire mages who ever lived studied and resided here.it was kinda like a medieval Garden. Yep, when Dratilia's liberated from that old lightning hag, and these corridors are put to use again, my face is gonna be on these walls, right next to ol' Kristinia's."
Ember rambled on, and though Irvine hung onto every single word, the instructor continued to glance around, an edgy feeling crawling on her skin. Was Kyonae somewhere in this hall? And if not, what was? She, Quistis Trepe, had been trained against the toughest creatures the world has ever known, and instructed others- but here, in this castle, she felt as if she hadn't even taken her first SeeD test yet. Her skills seemed useless here. This was not Quistis' world. Her world was based on reality; if she could see it and touch it, it was real. But this world had no definite reality. It relied more on the source of strange, feverish dreams and trips to the past, apparitions in the mirror and the well known presence of powerful magic. She shivered slightly.
Quistis was in Kyonae Falcona's world now.
Kyonae.the instructor had checked her records as well. Before the Trabia accident, she had been almost a pefect student...best gunblader in the Garden, well equipped in magic, martial arts and happiness. Something had been jarred loose that fateful day, lost its grip and floated away. But still she came back, it seemed, from the dead.she became normal again, at least as normal as possible, but not the Kyonae she had read about and seen in her school photos. She had seen it in her eyes-they were alive and bright as they always had been.but just a hint of the death and darkness that possessed her memory. Quistis felt strangely sad. What had happened to her? Many people had made it out of the accident, alive and sane.though some didn't. She had tried to remind herself that everyone has different reactions to crisis, but now that she walked through the Corridor of Fire, in the kingdom of Dratilia, trying to rescue Kyonae from a sorceress.she was beginning to think there was much more to it than that.
Quistis was broken from her deep thoughts by a small red lizard who scuttled out in her path, hissing at the instructor viciously, baring red fangs. She gasped, stepping backward. But obviously it was more afraid of her and scuttled back off into the darkness.
"Fire lizards," Ember muttered, smiling. "Poisonous. But don't worry. That was just a baby, and you've got blue eyes. Fire lizards are scared of anything blue. Anyway, don't be frightened. Besides a few little reptiles, there ain't nothin' or no one in this corridor. They were all cleared out long ago."
Suddenly the three heard a loud cry from farther down the corridor, the crier far away from our source of light. "HELP! SQUALL? SEIFER? .MOMMY?"
Ember jumped up into Irvine's arms as she had done before in fright. "Sweet glorious goddesses.! They musta forgotten someone!" She looked at the cowboy, embarrassed, and quickly got down again. "Eheh.sorry.don't know why I keep doin' that."
"Ts'all right," Irvine gulped nervously, straightening his hat, blushing in the dim firelight.
"It's Laguna!" Quistis cried.
Ember stared at the blond instructor disbelievingly. "You mean Laguna's been stuck here for six hundred years?"
Quistis ignored the slightly ignorant fire mage, waving into the darkness. "We're over here, Mr. Loire!"
Laguna's broad shouldered form came running toward them from the darkness of the corridor, a relieved look on his face. "Man, am I glad to see you guys! I got lost, it was so dark.what are you doing here?"
"Naomi brought us here."
"I figured. So, have you had any luck in finding Kyonae?"
"Nope," Ember replied. "You?"
"Well, obviously I can't find her if I'm lost," he snapped bitterly. "Jeez, I wish Kiros and Ward were here.I've got no sense of direction whatsoever, and they always used to point the group in the right direction when I screwed up."
"Well, don't worry about a thing, Laguna," the fire mage said proudly. "I've got the best sense of direction Dratilia's ever seen!"
"Great!" Irvine exclaimed happily. "Which way do we go, then?"
Ember shut up, an uncertain look on her face. "Um."
***
Naomi, Rinoa and Ellone traveled down the north corridor, the Corridor of Ice, following a set of footprints that by the texture of the boots Rinoa knew were Squall's. They called his name, their voices echoing through the hall, but were drowned out by the silence that had settled in for six hundred years.
"Oh, no, oh no," Rinoa began to mutter softly to myself, her heart wrenching in fear for her dear Squall. What had happened to him? Why couldn't he hear them calling?
"Calm yourself, Rinoa," Naomi said calmly, still gazing straight ahead. "Nothing can harm us or Leonhart here. These footprints will lead us to him."
The thunder mage had scared Rinoa slightly from the moment they had met her. She was much too dark and brooding, though deep inside she knew that they could trust her, she seemed to know much more about this than she let on, as if the truth was better off obscure.
"I apologize if my manner perturbs you, Rinoa," she broke the silence with her plain tone of voice, catching the sorceress off balance. "But you can trust me. I wish harm to no one but those who have brought plague unto my city. Indeed the truth is better off within the safety of the shadows, for now. Most of it is a mystery to me anyway."
Rinoa nodded quickly, clasping her hands in front of her as she walked, desperately trying to stop thinking as she realized that Naomi could hear her thoughts. Obviously Naomi sensed this also and laughed mockingly.
"Stop fighting your need to think, Sorceress," Naomi said, a small, strange smile forming on her dark lips. "I do not wish to read your thoughts every second. Only when I feel it is necessary. It is a gift of thunder mages, as I have said before."
"What other gifts do you have?"
"Well.there is the gift of telepathy, reading your thoughts for instance. The gift to extract information I want from the mind to the tongue, should telepathy fail as it usually fails. The gift of extrasensory perception; I can sense the presence of an enemy when my eyesight decieves me. Also the gifts of healing, and harming. And finally.the power to overpower the mind, to make one become a helpless puppet which only I can control."
"That sounds so."
"Cruel? Yes it is. But only in the hands of evil. If it is used properly, for the purposes of good, then it becomes that."
Rinoa stared down at the pale blue carpet. "Squall always said that there was no good or evil- just two different sides, blaming the other, holding different perspectives."
"Leonhart is a very wise young man beyond his years, Rinoa, and in some respects he is right. But evil and good do exist. Evil does not blame good- it envies it. Evil wants to destroy good so it is now the perfect one. Good loathes evil, smudging its purity, injuring its pride and people, and wants to destroy evil to be rid of its dark presence. But in doing so they would destroy themselves, for without good there is no evil. They are one, you see? They are the same, yet different, and that is why there is conflict. They become themselves."
"Like Squall and Seifer." Ellone offered quietly, then fell into silence as if she thought she was wrong.
Naomi smiled again with approval. "The perfect example, Ellone. Almasy envied Leonhart, did he not? He wanted to be the one everyone looked at. In turn, Leonhart loathed Almasy for giving him the fated scar, injuring his silent pride and hurting the ones he loved, and wanted to defeat him for the purpose of ridding the world of Almasy's seemingly harmful ways. They became themselves, blaming, loathing and envying each other for their problems. Both philosophies go hand in hand. But we have nothing to fear of those two. They are good friends now."
"Really?"
"Oh, yes, Ellone. Leonhart saw the softer side of his adversary. Almasy sought forgiveness from his opponent. I could tell they were always meant to be allies, but. sometimes, things do not work out the way we plan them to..." She said this last sentence with strange regretfulness, and for what seemed to be the hundredth time both Rinoa and Ellone wished they knew what was going on in the thunder mage's mind.
"Um, Naomi.the thing you said about thunder mages and their gifts.does Sorceress Maika possess them too?" Rinoa asked.
Naomi's eyes went soft, finally averting from their straight ahead vigil and looking at Rinoa with a mix of graveness and fear. She nodded grimly.
"Would she use them on Kyonae?"
She nodded again even more grimly, sadly. "Evil consumed her soul in the event of her daughter's death. Love is a force of good, but it turned her heart to stone towards everyone but her daughter, Sanya. She cares for no one but Sanya now. Maika took Kyonae from the orphanage of Edea." She drifted off, looking uncharacteristically crushed. Her mask of quiet confidence quickly returned, and the thunder mage shook her head almost deniably, dismissing whatever thought that had plagued her mind. "We should be getting near the end of the corridor now."
Indeed they did, in front of a portrait of a Princess Katarina, where to Rinoa's dismay Squall's footprints stopped abruptly in front of, so sign of them going down either of the two ways. But now, there were two sets of footprints, the new set noticeably smaller than Squall's.
"Oh no!" Rinoa gasped. "Someone else was here! They might've captured him!"
"Maybe he found Kyonae.?" Ellone said wonderingly.
"There's a sign of struggle.look," Naomi said, pointing to a place in Squall's path where there were knee and handprints. "He fell. But where would his captor have taken him? There aren't any other trails."
As the thunder mage swept into silent thought, Rinoa noticed Ellone approach the portrait, looking almost hypnotized as her eyes stared reproachfully up at the noble face of the Princess. Her hand went up and touched the portrait lightly, her index finger tracing the shape of the small silver amulet around the princess' neck.
"Hmm."
***
Meanwhile, in the Corridor Of Flowers, Selphie, Eve and Zell were glancing at the pictures and tapestries on the walls. Most of the men and women had either golden, brown, or green locks of hair and deep purple or green eyes, smiling softly and with dignity down at their beholders.
The entire hall smelled of fresh flowers, and a warm, humid air drifted about. Selphie looked on in wonder and amazement. "Wowee, who is that?" she asked at random, pointing at a picture of a young woman with deep green hair and bright purple eyes.
"Ugh." Eve sighed. Selphie had been doing this for nearly half an hour now. "That would be my greatest of ancestors, Cadineris Elmenti. She and her sisters, in her time, had saved the world from near destruct-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the hyper brunette waved the story aside, pointing to another portrait, and another, and another. "Who's that? And that? And that?"
"Selphie, maybe you should relax a little," Zell laughed, pointing at Eve, who was developing a very noticeable twitch under her left eye. "You're gonna make her have an aneurysm!"
"Now that is enough!" Eve finally cried indignantly, turning to them and blocking them from going any further down the corridor. It was like babysitting children with these two! As she glared at them venomously, they cringed in fear, both of them. "How in the name Blossoma did you two ever become SeeDs? Do they just give those SeeD uniforms away from where you're from? I am trying to be very patient, but you are working on my final nerve- SO SHUT IT!!!"
They looked at her in fright, mouths wide open and pointing with shock, speechless.
Eve looked smugly at them. "Scared of me, are you? Well you should be! I may look like a little daisy to be trod upon, but I have a very poisonous attitude when need be! May that be a lesson to you.what? Why do you keep staring at me? I'm not that intimadating, am I?"
"S-s-s-s-" was all the two could make out.
"Sorry? Oh, dear.it is quite all right. I accept your apology. Nothing to stutter about." she turned to proceed down the hall, but very much to her surprise a very big thing was blocking her way. It was a monstrously large green snake, raising itself to her height, long and vinelike with leaves sprouting about its scaly back, two lilypad flares stretching out on its head. It stared back at the shocked flower mage with large red eyes, opening its mouth to reveal long, venomous green fangs that dripped bright green poison.
"S-s-s-s-" Eve began stuttering herself, trembling with fright.
"SNAKE!" Selphie screamed. Everyone took out their weapons; Eve's was a long willow wand.
"Stand back!" she cried confidently, pointing it at the Vinosnake. She said something in another language, and there was a flash of pink light.
When the light faded, the Vinosnake was still there, an extremely large buttercup resting like a crown on its head, a thin vine cast around it. But the Vinosnake tensed its muscles and the vine snapped and fell uselessly to the ground, though the flower remained attached to its head. It hissed loudly in rage.
"Oh, great, now we're gonna get killed by a pretty snake!" Selphie cried in dismay.
"Oh, my," Eve moaned at her futile effort, backing away from the angered Vinosnake. The chlorophyllic reptile threw its head back and shrieked, then lunged for Selphie, fangs bared.
CRACK!!! A flash of black, blue and blond stepped quickly between them, a knuckle gloved fist shooting out and landing with extreme force upon the side of the Vinosnake's ugly head, cracking its skull with a sickening crunch. It fell to the green carpeted floor, twisting and writhing and shrieking in pain until another fist came down and silenced it; then it lay motionless and dead.
Zell wiped his hands on the front of his knee highs, cleaning off the vemnomous snake drool, looking smug.
Eve stood breathless, amazed at their savior. "I.I must say, Zell Dincht.that was.that was.extraordinary."
1.1 "It was amazing, too!" Selphie cried with delight. "What a hit! Wow, Zell! That was so brave of you!"
Zell grinned boyishly at the spunky brunette, blushing. "Really?"
"Really, really."
"Heh, well.anything for you, Selph."
It was Selphie's turn to blush now. "Aw, Zell."
Eve glanced nervously down at the crumpled body of the Vinosnake. "Hmm.I would say that it is time to turn back, eh? Kyonae couldn't possibly be down here anyway.ugh, such dreadful creatures."
Refusing to go any farther, the group turned back quickly to escape the Corridor of Flowers, to go and find Naomi up the Corridor of Ice. Zell and Selphie followed the flower mage, smiling at each other warmly and holding hands.
A/N:Aw.how cute.I had to write a little ZellxSelphie sooner or later. This chapter really wasn't finished, but on this Microsoft page counter it says I've done ten pages and I think it's time to end it. It'll continue in Ch.19, where we'll see how Seifer, Fujiin, and Raijiin are doing in the east corridor, and who will find Kyonae first. (Guess who? I dare you to guess when and if you review!) Oh, by the way Ifala, is this better? I think it is. Sorry to everybody who doesn't like all this fantasy stuff- I'm reading this cool book called the Sword of Shannara and I keep getting all these cool ideas. Any suggestions? Questions? Please review! Just don't flame, 'cause self esteem's all that's keepin' me goin' here. I mean, you might and I can't stop you, but you might get a nasty reply in return.but if you've read this far, you obviously like it so I won't pursue in the matter. Once again, please review! (
Chapter Eighteen: In The Corridors Of The Mages
Kyonae laid there on the iced over floor for what seemed like hours, maybe even days, hell, what seemed like years. She was no longer cold. She was the very being of cold. All she felt was sadness, deep, extreme sadness that flooded through her empty being, a sadness that for once she couldn't elude. It felt like Trabia again, only a hundred times worse, numb, frozen to the very soul, held down by a burden of helpless anger and hate. But this time, Kyonae could not cry out loud enough for anyone to hear her, nor would anyone care. Even she could not find the strength and will power to care anymore.
Lying there, many visions passed her eyes, glimpses of what Maika had left behind when she snatched away her very being, memories that had refused to dislodge themselves from her heart. All were bad. The day she left Edea's Orphanage, the day Trabia was destroyed, the many, many bad memories of the hospital, the day she received her fated scar, all the way up to where she was now, watching herself lying hopelessly on the floor, waiting to die. But something wouldn't allow her to die, not yet.
One memory flashed before Kyonae, and she was very confused for a moment. Before her eyes played the remembrance of the SeeD Ball, dancing with Seifer. Through the numbness Kyonae could feel the warmth of his hand in hers, the brightness of the lights; she could see his scarred, yet warm and kind face before her, and could still hear the music.
Someday out of the blue.
Someday out of the blue.maybe, someday. But right now, Kyonae was still in the blue. The vision disappeared, and though she searched and searched she could not find it. Obviously it had been a good memory, and Maika had sensed it and snatched it away.
The newfound sorceress suddenly heard footfalls outside of her prison; she heard soft voices and whispers and three presences. She smelled dust and soil and old stone. In her increasingly clouding mind flashed three images, almost instantaneously but she caught them before they slipped back into subconscious: Laguna, her father, Squall, her brother, and Seifer Almasy himself. Then they vanished and Kyonae was plunged into a different atmosphere. She heard louder voices and eleven presences. Humid wind blew across her face; she smelled coming rain and heard rumbling thunder. The images flashed into her mind just as the other three had. Rinoa, a sorceress' air around her. Selphie. Zell, the martial arts specialist. Quistis, her kind instructor. Irvine, a hero in her eyes. Fujiin, a silent friend and tough warrior. Raijiin, annoying yet brave. Three Dratilian mages named Eve, Ember and Naomi, and finally her dear sister Ellone who Kyonae had never met, smiling back at her in that fleeting moment she was there.
They were coming for her. All of them. Coming to rescue her, and cause Maika's downfall. Kyonae sensed them, as she could suddenly sense the whispering of the guards down the hall about the celebration, the mice scattering about in the darkness of the dungeons- and even the dark, evil presence she felt in the tower, waiting, blacker than black itself like the Iaret, but worse. It was resting, gaining energy and power as fast as she was losing it, its very existance making her shudder in a quick spasm of fear.
The Dark One, Kyonae Falcona.be aware of the Dark One.
The voice, one Kyonae had never heard in her life and yet so familiar, with a thick, cryptic Dratilian accent, a young woman's voice, whispered vibrantly through her mind, melting momentarily through the ice and then was gone. Her thoughts quickly diverted back to her friends, who were coming ever closer.
They were coming.and yet she felt no hope. Only shame.
The trio entered the dank, dark space that was the Castle Dungeons. The air was heavy and still. They looked up occasionally to see old, forgotten skeletons hanging by their bony wrists, decaying bits of sinew holding them together. It wasn't a pleasant sight.
"Ouch," Squall muttered, staring at one skeleton whose jawbone was wide open in a frozen scream, a sword plunged through his rib cage and into the slick stone wall. "That obviously hurt."
"No kidding," Seifer agreed with him, looking at one that hung on the wall in chains, but its body below the waist was nowhere to be found. "These guys really knew how to live.and beat the crap out of each other."
Laguna had turned a strange, slight shade of green and didn't make any comment.
Suddenly they heard the sounds of guards coming swiftly toward the dungeons. They quickly pulled up their cloak's hoods, covering their faces entirely in the darkness.
Two guards came into sight, and spotted them as well. "Hey! You!" they cried out abruptly.
Seifer's black-gloved hand went swiftly for his Hyperion's handle. Had they been caught? Not without a fight, they wouldn't. They all froze; the blond heard the slight sound of Squall's Lionheart's metallic blade sliding slowly out of its scabbard as well, and Laguna going for his gun.
".It is your turn to guard the Falcona girl. You were assigned the 18:00 shift, remember?"
Squall, Seifer and Laguna all relaxed; their weapons at ease. "Yes sir, thank you sir," Squall said quickly, walking swiftly past them as Seifer and Laguna followed, faces down. "We shall go and guard the Falcona girl, sir."
"That is what I like to hear from my cadets," the other guard said approvingly, yawning. "Oy, I need a nap."(author's note: so do I!)
They turned around the corner, up the stairs, leaving the dungeons, breathing out a sigh of relief. "Well, so far so good," Seifer shrugged. "Which way do we go now?"
"What? I thought you knew," Laguna protested quietly.
"Oh never mind. We'll just have to split up, that's all," Squall said simply.
"Split up? Son, do you know how big this castle is.?"
"We've gotta try it," interrupted Seifer determinedly. He didn't give a damn how the large the castle was. "Squall, you go that way.and Laguna, you can go down that hall.and I'll go this way. We've gotta find Kyonae sooner or later. Maika can wait."
Without another word they all went separate ways down the four way corridor, the torches on the walls lighting the way.
***
The large group entered the dungeons at exactly 18:00 hours, but there was no sign of Squall, Laguna or Seifer. Ellone became very scared for their lives, and the skeletons hanging on the walls did not help.
She was scared for Kyonae as well. Like Laguna she'd seen her for the first time at the Ball, and it had been like a static shock, a chill down her spine when Ellone momentarily caught her glance. She had known the gunblading woman was special in some way from the very start, though Ellone hadn't known about the letter. Now, it seemed that her dear brave sister had gotten herself very involved in something that was hard to explain, and the quiet dark haired young woman hoped to find her soon. Then they'd all be together again, a perfect family, and the past would be forgotten.
Of course, that nagging voice in the back of Ellone's head said, it was the past that brought them all together from the very beginning.
They miraculously passed the sleeping guards without any trouble, as they snored louder than their footsteps. Naomi had told them that they should be able to move fairly freely here, since all the guards were out in the streets for the celebration. They traveled up the stairs and came into a four way corridor.
"These are the Corridors of the Mages. This is where the mages of the royal army lived and studied in the days of Queen Lunora and her family. But they are quiet now, inhabited by naught but mice and dust."
The fire mage sneezed loudly, her mane of red hair falling in her face. She sniffed, rubbing her nose lightly. "Sniff.I'll say."
"Which way do we go now?" Selphie whispered quietly.
Naomi studied the corridors, thinking. "Hmm.I do not know. I know the Sorceress' chambers are back that way, but to Kyonae.I do not know. She could have been placed anywhere."
"Can't you.I don't know.point her out?" Ember asked, shrugging.
"I could.just a moment." Naomi closed her eyes and inhaled, lowering into deep concentration. For a moment the air around her shimmered invisibly, vibrating. Then, her eyes and mouth snapped wide open in shock, and she stumbled to the beautifully carpeted floor, gasping slightly.
"Naomi! What happened? Are you all right?" Eve gasped quietly, pulling up the fallen thunder mage.
Naomi was dazed, catching her breath and shuddering as she spoke. "Something stopped me.it was keeping Kyonae away from me.it swiped at me, it felt so cold.an evil shadow."
"Well, you'll not be trying that again," said Eve protectively, patting the shell-shocked mage soothingly on the shoulder. "We'll have to find her on our own."
"Then we've gotta split up into groups," Ember quickly suggested, glancing sideways at Irvine. "I'll take Quistis and Irvine, and go down the west corridor!"
"Then I shall take Zell and Selphie go down the south wing," the calm flower mage volunteered.
"I will lead Sorceress Rinoa and Ellone down the north corridor. But that leaves us with only two to go down the east corridor, and without one of us to guide them." Naomi gazed silently at Raijiin and Fujiin. "Will you be all right?"
"Hey, we can handle this, ya know? Don't worry about it, ya know?" Raijiin said casually, waving off the concerned remark.
"WE. SEIFER. FIND. BEST FRIEND. DO ANYTHING," Fujiin replied determinedly, standing proudly beside Raijiin. Of course. They were Seifer's posse. Ellone barely knew them, but by the look in their eyes she could tell they'd search a hundred castles if needed be. True friendship. "BE. FINE. DON'T. WORRY."
"Very well, then," Naomi nodded. "We must be going. Rinoa, Ellone, follow me."
They parted ways there, and Ellone shivered though she wasn't cold. Something told her that something terrible and fearful was to happen this night.
1 Squall, my brother, be careful.
***
Just by the feeling of the still, musty dry air, Squall Leonhart knew this corridor hadn't been traveled by in a long time. This was the north corridor; his dad had taken the west and Seifer the east. He kicked up small wispy clouds of dust as he walked, as it lightly coated everything from the intricately designed carpet, which was a pale blue, to the portrait covered walls, the portraits themselves strangely free of any dust at all. The faces of royalty and powerful mages seemed to stare blankly and icily down at him as he passed with pale blue eyes uncannily like his own, and mostly all of them had brown hair or white, or in one case, blue black, under a portrait labled Marinia Elmenti.
He felt strange. He wasn't going to puke or anything, not that kind of strange. Squall felt strange, as if he'd been here before, like he knew where he was going. There were many doors along the way, and the gunblader tried them all, but they were all bolted shut. He felt as if he'd walked a mile down this corridor, and judging on the castle's size, he probably had.
Finally Squall saw the end of the seemingly endless hall. It split into two side corridors, but the portrait at the end of this particular hall was what intrigued him.
It was a portrait of a young woman, about his age, with strange yet beautiful pure, white hair like a unicorn's, a perfectly rounded pale face, deep pink lips and vaguely familiar silvery blue eyes that stared deeply into him even from the distance.
Squall walked forward until he was about ten feet away from it, then abruptly stopped, unable to move. He suddenly felt very sluggish, tired and dizzy. His eyes fell down to the name on the portrait plaque:
Princess Katarina Falcona.
Suddenly the hallway was bright in torchlight, immaculate of dust and a fresh scent of life in the air, the rooms within the corridor buzzing with the energy of many young men and women studying spells behind the doors. The hall was empty, except for the little boy with shaggy brown hair standing on the pale blue carpet. Two figures passed him, Katarina and a young man with fine blond hair and crystalline blue eyes.
Katarina saw him. "Now Squall," she sighed, smiling warmly yet nervously. "What are you doing out here? Mother will be worried sick when she finds you out of the nursery. Where is Sa-Shenu?" she picked him up from under the arms, hugging him warmly.
"S-sorry, Katie," Squall stuttered. "I just w-wanted to play with you."
"We shall play later, my little brother. We shall play for a million hours! But right now Sir Darion and I have matters to take care of. Run along, and I shall catch up."
Without waiting to see if he obeyed, she turned and walked briskly for the portrait of herself, Sir Darion following. They stopped before it, making sure no one was around. Squall hid in a doorway, peeking out to watch them as they both took something small out of their pockets, two falcon necklaces.
"Are you sure this will work, Darion? Your father is no fool."
"It must work, Katarina, it will! He would not have the courage to use the pendant anyway, with the powers it possesses.he is no fool, but a coward he may be."
"I do hope you are right, my love.come, there is still much work to do to the fake necklace if it is to look exactly like mine." she grabbed the frame of the giant portrait and pushed, and the picture swung inward on a hinge to reveal the small doorway to a secret room. Darion climbed in, and Katarina closed it behind her as she went in, looking around one final time.
Squall snapped out of the trance, now on his knees on the old carpet, the air heavy, still and relatively dead. He coughed and gagged on the dust that flew up into his scarred face as he fell. Falcona.that was Kyonae's last name! Squall wondered, thinking back to the story he had overheard Naomi telling Seifer.
As his cerulean eyes cleared and the dust settled back onto the ground, Squall saw something that made the hairs on the back of his neck bristle.
Footprints.
Yes, footprints. Footprints, belonging to a woman, had left their mark in the dust-caked floor, appearing right in front of him, traveling down the rest of the hallway, and disappeared at the front of Princess Katarina's portrait. They hadn't been there before, Squall was sure. How the hell.
He slowly made his way toward the portrait, sweat running down his forehead and his heart beating rapidly in his chest. Squall had never believed in ghosts, but of course, an experience like this tends to change one.
Laying his gloved hand on the ornate frame, he pushed gently into it, half hoping it wouldn't open. But it did open, slowly, creaking with age and showering a snow of dust down upon his form, leading into darkness.
Squall lifted a torch from its hold on the wall. "Fire," he muttered softly, and flecks of red fire spurted from his fingertips, lighting it. Holding his breath, mustering all of his courage, Squall Leonhart climbed into the secret room of Katarina Falcona.
***
"Gosh, it's dark in here," Quistis Trepe heard Irvine say.
"Just a second," Ember answered, and after a moment a small flame flared up wthin her palm, flickering soothingly through the darkness. The two looked on in amazement. "Uh- doesn't that, uh-hurt?" Quistis asked falteringly.
"Heck no, Quistis. Been doin' this ever since I was a child. It's pretty easy once ya get the hang of it. Wanna try?"
"Hmm, no thank you," she politely refused.
Ember shrugged. "Your loss."
Quistis looked around in the dim light of the flame. Many portraits hung on the walls, mostly of people with flaming red hair and stunning green eyes, grinning ferociously as they stood frozen within their frames. One mage looked especially fiery, a massive mane of curly red hair and bright green eyes, a cocksure grin set on her painted face.Kristinia Elmenti.
"Aren't they lovely lookin' people?" Ember sighed dreamily. "I think the Elmenti mage is my great great great great great grandmother or something.yep, this is the Corridor of Fire. The greatest fire mages who ever lived studied and resided here.it was kinda like a medieval Garden. Yep, when Dratilia's liberated from that old lightning hag, and these corridors are put to use again, my face is gonna be on these walls, right next to ol' Kristinia's."
Ember rambled on, and though Irvine hung onto every single word, the instructor continued to glance around, an edgy feeling crawling on her skin. Was Kyonae somewhere in this hall? And if not, what was? She, Quistis Trepe, had been trained against the toughest creatures the world has ever known, and instructed others- but here, in this castle, she felt as if she hadn't even taken her first SeeD test yet. Her skills seemed useless here. This was not Quistis' world. Her world was based on reality; if she could see it and touch it, it was real. But this world had no definite reality. It relied more on the source of strange, feverish dreams and trips to the past, apparitions in the mirror and the well known presence of powerful magic. She shivered slightly.
Quistis was in Kyonae Falcona's world now.
Kyonae.the instructor had checked her records as well. Before the Trabia accident, she had been almost a pefect student...best gunblader in the Garden, well equipped in magic, martial arts and happiness. Something had been jarred loose that fateful day, lost its grip and floated away. But still she came back, it seemed, from the dead.she became normal again, at least as normal as possible, but not the Kyonae she had read about and seen in her school photos. She had seen it in her eyes-they were alive and bright as they always had been.but just a hint of the death and darkness that possessed her memory. Quistis felt strangely sad. What had happened to her? Many people had made it out of the accident, alive and sane.though some didn't. She had tried to remind herself that everyone has different reactions to crisis, but now that she walked through the Corridor of Fire, in the kingdom of Dratilia, trying to rescue Kyonae from a sorceress.she was beginning to think there was much more to it than that.
Quistis was broken from her deep thoughts by a small red lizard who scuttled out in her path, hissing at the instructor viciously, baring red fangs. She gasped, stepping backward. But obviously it was more afraid of her and scuttled back off into the darkness.
"Fire lizards," Ember muttered, smiling. "Poisonous. But don't worry. That was just a baby, and you've got blue eyes. Fire lizards are scared of anything blue. Anyway, don't be frightened. Besides a few little reptiles, there ain't nothin' or no one in this corridor. They were all cleared out long ago."
Suddenly the three heard a loud cry from farther down the corridor, the crier far away from our source of light. "HELP! SQUALL? SEIFER? .MOMMY?"
Ember jumped up into Irvine's arms as she had done before in fright. "Sweet glorious goddesses.! They musta forgotten someone!" She looked at the cowboy, embarrassed, and quickly got down again. "Eheh.sorry.don't know why I keep doin' that."
"Ts'all right," Irvine gulped nervously, straightening his hat, blushing in the dim firelight.
"It's Laguna!" Quistis cried.
Ember stared at the blond instructor disbelievingly. "You mean Laguna's been stuck here for six hundred years?"
Quistis ignored the slightly ignorant fire mage, waving into the darkness. "We're over here, Mr. Loire!"
Laguna's broad shouldered form came running toward them from the darkness of the corridor, a relieved look on his face. "Man, am I glad to see you guys! I got lost, it was so dark.what are you doing here?"
"Naomi brought us here."
"I figured. So, have you had any luck in finding Kyonae?"
"Nope," Ember replied. "You?"
"Well, obviously I can't find her if I'm lost," he snapped bitterly. "Jeez, I wish Kiros and Ward were here.I've got no sense of direction whatsoever, and they always used to point the group in the right direction when I screwed up."
"Well, don't worry about a thing, Laguna," the fire mage said proudly. "I've got the best sense of direction Dratilia's ever seen!"
"Great!" Irvine exclaimed happily. "Which way do we go, then?"
Ember shut up, an uncertain look on her face. "Um."
***
Naomi, Rinoa and Ellone traveled down the north corridor, the Corridor of Ice, following a set of footprints that by the texture of the boots Rinoa knew were Squall's. They called his name, their voices echoing through the hall, but were drowned out by the silence that had settled in for six hundred years.
"Oh, no, oh no," Rinoa began to mutter softly to myself, her heart wrenching in fear for her dear Squall. What had happened to him? Why couldn't he hear them calling?
"Calm yourself, Rinoa," Naomi said calmly, still gazing straight ahead. "Nothing can harm us or Leonhart here. These footprints will lead us to him."
The thunder mage had scared Rinoa slightly from the moment they had met her. She was much too dark and brooding, though deep inside she knew that they could trust her, she seemed to know much more about this than she let on, as if the truth was better off obscure.
"I apologize if my manner perturbs you, Rinoa," she broke the silence with her plain tone of voice, catching the sorceress off balance. "But you can trust me. I wish harm to no one but those who have brought plague unto my city. Indeed the truth is better off within the safety of the shadows, for now. Most of it is a mystery to me anyway."
Rinoa nodded quickly, clasping her hands in front of her as she walked, desperately trying to stop thinking as she realized that Naomi could hear her thoughts. Obviously Naomi sensed this also and laughed mockingly.
"Stop fighting your need to think, Sorceress," Naomi said, a small, strange smile forming on her dark lips. "I do not wish to read your thoughts every second. Only when I feel it is necessary. It is a gift of thunder mages, as I have said before."
"What other gifts do you have?"
"Well.there is the gift of telepathy, reading your thoughts for instance. The gift to extract information I want from the mind to the tongue, should telepathy fail as it usually fails. The gift of extrasensory perception; I can sense the presence of an enemy when my eyesight decieves me. Also the gifts of healing, and harming. And finally.the power to overpower the mind, to make one become a helpless puppet which only I can control."
"That sounds so."
"Cruel? Yes it is. But only in the hands of evil. If it is used properly, for the purposes of good, then it becomes that."
Rinoa stared down at the pale blue carpet. "Squall always said that there was no good or evil- just two different sides, blaming the other, holding different perspectives."
"Leonhart is a very wise young man beyond his years, Rinoa, and in some respects he is right. But evil and good do exist. Evil does not blame good- it envies it. Evil wants to destroy good so it is now the perfect one. Good loathes evil, smudging its purity, injuring its pride and people, and wants to destroy evil to be rid of its dark presence. But in doing so they would destroy themselves, for without good there is no evil. They are one, you see? They are the same, yet different, and that is why there is conflict. They become themselves."
"Like Squall and Seifer." Ellone offered quietly, then fell into silence as if she thought she was wrong.
Naomi smiled again with approval. "The perfect example, Ellone. Almasy envied Leonhart, did he not? He wanted to be the one everyone looked at. In turn, Leonhart loathed Almasy for giving him the fated scar, injuring his silent pride and hurting the ones he loved, and wanted to defeat him for the purpose of ridding the world of Almasy's seemingly harmful ways. They became themselves, blaming, loathing and envying each other for their problems. Both philosophies go hand in hand. But we have nothing to fear of those two. They are good friends now."
"Really?"
"Oh, yes, Ellone. Leonhart saw the softer side of his adversary. Almasy sought forgiveness from his opponent. I could tell they were always meant to be allies, but. sometimes, things do not work out the way we plan them to..." She said this last sentence with strange regretfulness, and for what seemed to be the hundredth time both Rinoa and Ellone wished they knew what was going on in the thunder mage's mind.
"Um, Naomi.the thing you said about thunder mages and their gifts.does Sorceress Maika possess them too?" Rinoa asked.
Naomi's eyes went soft, finally averting from their straight ahead vigil and looking at Rinoa with a mix of graveness and fear. She nodded grimly.
"Would she use them on Kyonae?"
She nodded again even more grimly, sadly. "Evil consumed her soul in the event of her daughter's death. Love is a force of good, but it turned her heart to stone towards everyone but her daughter, Sanya. She cares for no one but Sanya now. Maika took Kyonae from the orphanage of Edea." She drifted off, looking uncharacteristically crushed. Her mask of quiet confidence quickly returned, and the thunder mage shook her head almost deniably, dismissing whatever thought that had plagued her mind. "We should be getting near the end of the corridor now."
Indeed they did, in front of a portrait of a Princess Katarina, where to Rinoa's dismay Squall's footprints stopped abruptly in front of, so sign of them going down either of the two ways. But now, there were two sets of footprints, the new set noticeably smaller than Squall's.
"Oh no!" Rinoa gasped. "Someone else was here! They might've captured him!"
"Maybe he found Kyonae.?" Ellone said wonderingly.
"There's a sign of struggle.look," Naomi said, pointing to a place in Squall's path where there were knee and handprints. "He fell. But where would his captor have taken him? There aren't any other trails."
As the thunder mage swept into silent thought, Rinoa noticed Ellone approach the portrait, looking almost hypnotized as her eyes stared reproachfully up at the noble face of the Princess. Her hand went up and touched the portrait lightly, her index finger tracing the shape of the small silver amulet around the princess' neck.
"Hmm."
***
Meanwhile, in the Corridor Of Flowers, Selphie, Eve and Zell were glancing at the pictures and tapestries on the walls. Most of the men and women had either golden, brown, or green locks of hair and deep purple or green eyes, smiling softly and with dignity down at their beholders.
The entire hall smelled of fresh flowers, and a warm, humid air drifted about. Selphie looked on in wonder and amazement. "Wowee, who is that?" she asked at random, pointing at a picture of a young woman with deep green hair and bright purple eyes.
"Ugh." Eve sighed. Selphie had been doing this for nearly half an hour now. "That would be my greatest of ancestors, Cadineris Elmenti. She and her sisters, in her time, had saved the world from near destruct-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the hyper brunette waved the story aside, pointing to another portrait, and another, and another. "Who's that? And that? And that?"
"Selphie, maybe you should relax a little," Zell laughed, pointing at Eve, who was developing a very noticeable twitch under her left eye. "You're gonna make her have an aneurysm!"
"Now that is enough!" Eve finally cried indignantly, turning to them and blocking them from going any further down the corridor. It was like babysitting children with these two! As she glared at them venomously, they cringed in fear, both of them. "How in the name Blossoma did you two ever become SeeDs? Do they just give those SeeD uniforms away from where you're from? I am trying to be very patient, but you are working on my final nerve- SO SHUT IT!!!"
They looked at her in fright, mouths wide open and pointing with shock, speechless.
Eve looked smugly at them. "Scared of me, are you? Well you should be! I may look like a little daisy to be trod upon, but I have a very poisonous attitude when need be! May that be a lesson to you.what? Why do you keep staring at me? I'm not that intimadating, am I?"
"S-s-s-s-" was all the two could make out.
"Sorry? Oh, dear.it is quite all right. I accept your apology. Nothing to stutter about." she turned to proceed down the hall, but very much to her surprise a very big thing was blocking her way. It was a monstrously large green snake, raising itself to her height, long and vinelike with leaves sprouting about its scaly back, two lilypad flares stretching out on its head. It stared back at the shocked flower mage with large red eyes, opening its mouth to reveal long, venomous green fangs that dripped bright green poison.
"S-s-s-s-" Eve began stuttering herself, trembling with fright.
"SNAKE!" Selphie screamed. Everyone took out their weapons; Eve's was a long willow wand.
"Stand back!" she cried confidently, pointing it at the Vinosnake. She said something in another language, and there was a flash of pink light.
When the light faded, the Vinosnake was still there, an extremely large buttercup resting like a crown on its head, a thin vine cast around it. But the Vinosnake tensed its muscles and the vine snapped and fell uselessly to the ground, though the flower remained attached to its head. It hissed loudly in rage.
"Oh, great, now we're gonna get killed by a pretty snake!" Selphie cried in dismay.
"Oh, my," Eve moaned at her futile effort, backing away from the angered Vinosnake. The chlorophyllic reptile threw its head back and shrieked, then lunged for Selphie, fangs bared.
CRACK!!! A flash of black, blue and blond stepped quickly between them, a knuckle gloved fist shooting out and landing with extreme force upon the side of the Vinosnake's ugly head, cracking its skull with a sickening crunch. It fell to the green carpeted floor, twisting and writhing and shrieking in pain until another fist came down and silenced it; then it lay motionless and dead.
Zell wiped his hands on the front of his knee highs, cleaning off the vemnomous snake drool, looking smug.
Eve stood breathless, amazed at their savior. "I.I must say, Zell Dincht.that was.that was.extraordinary."
1.1 "It was amazing, too!" Selphie cried with delight. "What a hit! Wow, Zell! That was so brave of you!"
Zell grinned boyishly at the spunky brunette, blushing. "Really?"
"Really, really."
"Heh, well.anything for you, Selph."
It was Selphie's turn to blush now. "Aw, Zell."
Eve glanced nervously down at the crumpled body of the Vinosnake. "Hmm.I would say that it is time to turn back, eh? Kyonae couldn't possibly be down here anyway.ugh, such dreadful creatures."
Refusing to go any farther, the group turned back quickly to escape the Corridor of Flowers, to go and find Naomi up the Corridor of Ice. Zell and Selphie followed the flower mage, smiling at each other warmly and holding hands.
A/N:Aw.how cute.I had to write a little ZellxSelphie sooner or later. This chapter really wasn't finished, but on this Microsoft page counter it says I've done ten pages and I think it's time to end it. It'll continue in Ch.19, where we'll see how Seifer, Fujiin, and Raijiin are doing in the east corridor, and who will find Kyonae first. (Guess who? I dare you to guess when and if you review!) Oh, by the way Ifala, is this better? I think it is. Sorry to everybody who doesn't like all this fantasy stuff- I'm reading this cool book called the Sword of Shannara and I keep getting all these cool ideas. Any suggestions? Questions? Please review! Just don't flame, 'cause self esteem's all that's keepin' me goin' here. I mean, you might and I can't stop you, but you might get a nasty reply in return.but if you've read this far, you obviously like it so I won't pursue in the matter. Once again, please review! (
