Chapter 3
Monday. What a day. Lilean looked up at the daunting building that was the Magitek Factory and let out a long, defeated sigh. Almost six years ago, when she was ten, she had been placed in the program here to become a Magitek Engineer. For all six of those years she had been exploring and working in the Factory nearly every day and she still didn't know everything there was to know about it.
So how the heck am I supposed to give this guy a "thorough" tour like Cid wants?
A little voice told her that if she didn't hurry up and go in she would be late, and she wouldn't want that to happen, now would she?
She saluted the guards as she passed them by. Neither of them moved a muscle. Lilean wondered, and not for the first time, if they would even notice if some unauthorized person just waltzed on in. Inside, the Factory was lit with harsh fluorescent light; there were no windows. Lilean shivered almost imperceptibly as she passed out of the sun and beyond the steel walls. She had worked so long in the Factory that she didn't notice it anymore, but the thick, stale air of the "Devil's Lab"—as the Factory was often called—left no one truly at ease.
Lilean's shoes clanged lightly against the metal mesh floor of the corridor. She was alone—the Factory was as of yet deserted. She trotted lightly up a flight of stairs to another wing of the building where the offices of supervising personnel could be found. Cid's was at the end of the hallway. Her pace slowed, and her feet dragged. I really don't want to do this…
At the doorway to the last office before Cid's Lilean paused, and couldn't help smiling. The shades to the window were drawn, so she couldn't see inside, but she knew that this office was empty save for a few bookshelves and a desk. On the door was taped a note: "Reserved for Lieutenant Sette." This would be her office—as soon as she was promoted. At the thought her heart leaped a little, December sixth was this coming Sunday! For a moment her gloomy mood lifted and she forgot all about her assignment as Edgar's tour-guide. For a brief moment.
The door to Cid's office banged open a little violently. "Are you going to just stand and stare all day like a love-struck idiot at your future office?"
Lilean started and turned to face Cid rather incredulously. The last time she'd ever heard him use that tone of voice was when she and Celes had painted Supervisor Dwinell's office pink, when they were twelve. She hadn't the faintest idea what could have gotten Cid so mad already.
"Okay, Cid, I'm coming…" Her eyes strayed to a clock on the wall. It read seven twenty. Lilean's jaw dropped. Twenty minutes late? How could she be twenty minutes late? She had left fifteen minutes early! She checked her own watch. The hands were stuck at six forty-five. She groaned to herself. Today was not going to be a good day.
Cid shut the office door behind them.
By Cid's desk stood a tall, well-dressed man. His long blond hair was tied back into a neat ponytail with a purple bow, his clothes were perfectly matched without a wrinkle to be detected, and his black boots were so polished Lilean could see her face reflected in them.
She hated to admit it, but he looked every bit a king.
"Good morning, your Majesty," Cid said cheerfully.
Edgar turned to face them. "Good morning, Cid," he answered, not quite as happily as Cid. He was...polite.
"This is Lilean Sette," Cid continued, "the soon-to-be lieutenant of the Magitek Factory. She has volunteered to be your tour guide."
Lilean could have screamed. Volunteered?
Edgar nodded. "Good morning, young lady," he said, turning towards Lilean.
His eyes lit up at the sight of her, and he smiled brightly.
Lilean scowled.
I'll "good morning" you, fruitcake, she thought. An awkward pause followed.
"Lilean," Cid said raising his eyebrows. "Aren't you going to...say anything?"
Without warning Lilean jumped forward and bowed exaggeratedly. "Good morning to you, as well, your Majesty. I trust you slept well."
"Oh, very," Edgar responded, a little too brightly.
Cid seemed at a loss for words. Lilean continued.
"I welcome you to our humble Magic Factory."
"That's Magitek Factory, Lilean," Cid corrected her.
She ignored him, continuing to bow ridiculously low, a stupid, silly smile plastered across her features.
"Um, well, I believe you can get started with your tour now," Cid said, faltering, clearly at a bit of a loss.
Edgar was regarding Lilean in the same way one might regard a swearing sailor's parrot.
"As you wish, sir!" Lilean answered cheerfully, still bent over, "certainly, sir!"
Giving his student one last bewildered look, the Head Scientist turned and left.
"May I wipe your ass, sir?" This time, Lilean's cheerful response was said through clenched teeth.
"Well, alright now," she said, straightening up. "Let's go already." She turned to exit Cid's office, then paused at the door, "Oh, and, your Majesty, do me a favor, and don't screw around. If you get yourself into trouble, don't expect me to get you out of it."
Edgar raised an eyebrow, but followed her silently out into the corridor.
"I'm not sure if Cid mentioned it when you arrived," Lilean began in a flat tone, "but this hallway is where most of the offices are located. There are also small supervisory offices on each floor of the Factory, for managerial purposes."
"He did say so," Edgar replied smoothly, "and he also said that that one back there—" be pointed behind them— "was going to be yours. Congratulations on your promotion."
Lilean stopped and blinked a little. Hey, maybe this guy isn't so bad after all…
"Why thank you, your majesty," she started to say, but was interrupted.
"So, then—Lilean, isn't it?" Edgar said, leaning down close to her, his voice becoming silken and saccharine before her very ears, "See, while I—most unfortunately—have an engagement for lunch this afternoon, I am free of all obligations for dinner this evening. It would be a tragedy indeed if I were forced to spend it all alone, and I can assure you that I would truly delight in the company of such a lovely creature as yourself. What do you say?"
During the time of his little speech Edgar had managed to slip an arm around Lilean's shoulders and draw her ever-so-slightly closer to him. A faint scent of flowers filled her nostrils. Edgar's ridiculously blue eyes shone with innocent, noble intent.
If Lilean wasn't such a cynic, she might have accepted.
Guess I was wrong, she chided herself. Out loud she said, rather haughtily, "With all due respect, your majesty, you can go sit on a tack. Come along, I have a tour to give."
She turned and pushed open the door to the Magitek Factory, and Edgar followed. If she had looked behind her, she might have noted his rueful smile.
* * *
Lilean led the King up stairs, down stairs, across catwalks that straddled seemingly bottomless, smoking pits, through tunnels that descended far into the ground, through hidden doors and trapdoors, up elevators and lifts, past offices and engine rooms, and through nearly every twist in the maze-like production center. She stopped periodically to explain the functions of certain machines, state the history of certain rooms, or answer Edgar's frequent questions in a bored manner. She was in hell.
Edgar was in heaven.
He acted like a kid in a candy shop, wide eyed and full of curiosity. King Edgar Figaro was noted and admired for handling his kingdom with wisdom beyond his young age of twenty-five. But here one could see that the fascination of a boyhood hobby had not quite been outgrown.
"...And here we have our latest piece of equipment, a full suit of mobile armor capable of being worn and handled by every single one of our current Magitek Knights, as well as those in training. It contains three offensive devises, "Fire Beam," "Ice Beam," and "Bolt Beam," each of which contains elements pertaining to their name. Duh. There's also one recovery item, another magic beam called "Heal Force." It can be used on the pilot himself or any of his comrades within range. However, as you can see the armor is still quite bulky, and therefore clumsy, and we've been having problems with unexpected internal explosions during testing, too, much to the chagrin of the soldiers doing the testing. Anyway, in short, this is still a prototype, and should remain so for a while, but upon completion, this should become one of our greatest achievements ever."
Upon finishing her speech, Lilean yawned. "Any questions, King Edgar?"
Edgar nodded, eyes wide with rapt attention. "Just one, Lilean."
Lilean raised her eyebrows.
"I was wondering what that
smaller machine over there does."
He pointed to the left. Lilean followed his gaze.
"Oh, that." She turned to him and swept her hand grandly. "That's the Mister Coffee."
"...Oh."
Lilean bowed a little. "You can have some if you like, your Majesty. Regular, Decaff, or Unleaded."
Edgar stared at her. "'Unleaded?'"
"It's a factory, sir."
"I...think I'll pass on the coffee."
Lilean shrugged. "As you wish."
The tour continued.
Of course, the King never was one to get too caught up in his first hobby so as to forget the second, a pastime that also seemed to occupy most of the young men his age. King Edgar, however, was an extreme.
"Good day, young lady, what might your name be?" was a phrase Lilean came to know better than any other in the hours she led the King around. The Magitek Factory was full of workers, a good deal of them female, as Edgar quickly noticed. Lilean wondered how Cid could have ever thought it a good idea for a girl to give Edgar the tour...wouldn't that be like asking a deer to walk into the lair of a wolf? But then again, Lilean was the future lieutenant, and it seemed as if one snub had been good enough for the King. He didn't try her again, and fortunately, most of the other young female workers were either too smart or too occupied with what they were doing to pay attention to His Royal Highness.
Lilean closed her eyes and mouthed a silent prayer to herself as she led Edgar down one wide iron catwalk. Thank the gods, thank them, thank them! All she had to do was get through this one, last speech—and it would all be over. The light at the end of the tunnel shone bright and steady. She exhaled. This was within her capabilities.
As the young engineer paced quickly and impatiently along, she sidestepped one absent-minded looking, lavender-haired girl, not even giving her a second glance or a passing thought. Lilean was concentrating much too hard on convincing herself that she could actually do this one last task without falling into many violent and temperamental pieces. Unfortunately for her, Edgar wasn't quite so focused. The soft, girlish beauty of the idle worker caught the King's attention, and he stopped.
Lilean didn't notice.
"Good day, young lady, what might your name be?" Edgar's winning tone of voice was accompanied by just as winning a smile and just the right amount of sparkle in his eyes.
The girl looked up nervously.
"Are...are you talking to...me?" she asked, nervously pointing at herself.
"But of course, my dear, I don't see any other pretty girls around, do you?"
And in truth, there weren't.
* * *
"So here we are at the last point of interest in our tour, King Edgar," Lilean began. "This is our personal junk room, just a small storage place for waste parts until they can be moved to somewhere more convenient or recycled..."
Lilean trailed off.
Why was it so silent...?
She turned around—
--And discovered that she was all alone.
And talking to herself.
"Oh, hell."
* * *
King Edgar had managed to get a conversation of a sort going with his young lady of choice. She was shy and rather innocent, and very much flattered by Edgar's attention. He figured that if he kept at it, he might have a chance with this one. He now knew that she was originally from Tzen, she had been sent to Vector in a mandatory enlistment program, and now she was a factory worker at the MRF. It figured why; she didn't seem to be exactly the brightest candle in the window. But she was cheerful, and sweet, and Edgar was interested. Who needed intelligence in a one-night stand? In fact, who even wanted it?
He had made up his mind to invite this girl out to dinner tonight with him (and hopefully subsequently to bed; the offer Lilean had refused) when a factory director stormed up, obviously not happy.
"Maureanna! What the hell do you think you're doing?"
The lavender-haired girl turned white, "I-I'm sorry, sir, I was just talking to this young man here..."
The director glared at Edgar with one bleary eye.
"Yeah, whatever Maureanna. That shit don't work up here. Go down to Level B and get back to work. A boiler blew and it's a real pisser of a mess."
Maureanna hung her head. "Yes, sir," she replied meekly. She timidly followed her commanding officer down the catwalk and out of site.
"Damn," said Edgar. Then he shrugged. There were plenty of fish in the sea. He turned to Lilean.
"Lilean, I believe we can be on our way, now..."
She was nowhere to be seen.
* * *
Lilean's hands were clamped around her pigtails, one for each, and she pulled hard on both of them as she turned her face to the ceiling and opened her mouth wide in a silent shriek.
"Why, why, WHY?" she demanded of the ceiling. "WHY!" It was no longer a question. She glared at suddenly offending steel beams and, making a quick decision, yelled for real, long and loud. After she lost her breath and voice, she let go of her pigtails and looked down, panting for breath. She felt marginally better. With a resolved sigh, she checked her watch. There was nothing for it, the bastard had well and truly managed to get himself lost and she would have to go and find him. It was now ten to ten. Cid had said Edgar had a lunch engagement at twelve thirty. That left her a glorious two and a half hours to find him. Trying not to start hyperventilating, Lilean turned stiffly around and headed back into the Factory to retrace her steps.
"I just hope he's had the sense to stay in one place," she muttered.
* * *
Edgar slowly rotated three-hundred and sixty degrees for the sixth time. It had been confirmed. Lilean had vanished. He stood, blinking, pondering the situation. Well, Lilean had deserted him, Maureanna had been carted off by her supervising officer, and he, King Edgar, had a lunch meeting in two and a half hours. What to do? Well, he couldn't just hang around on the catwalk, could he? He looked down over the railings. It was a long way down to…whatever. He couldn't see the floor. If there even was a floor. Edgar's head swam a little. He backed away slowly and looked down the walkway. Well, he and Lilean had been heading that way before they stopped and Lilean vanished. Edgar took a step in what he believed to be the right direction, then another, than another. He felt better already. As he walked, a small, intelligent voice in the back of his mind suggested that it might not be such a bright idea to walk off blindly into the huge, maze-like factory, but he brushed it calmly away. How many times had he gotten "lost" in the catacombs of Figaro castle? And how many times had he managed to find his way triumphantly out? Once, the intelligent voice replied, the other times your parents sent someone looking for you. Again Edgar ignored the misgiving and plunged boldly into the unknown.
* * *
An hour had passed. Lilean stood listlessly staring at the floor, the top of her head pressed against the wall. She had retraced every single step of the tour at lightning speed—even some of the immediate corridors branching off from the main route—but Edgar had been nowhere to be found. It was hopeless. He was gone. Where, she had no idea. Just gone. She closed her eyes. The hall of offices was just around the corner and Lilean was not looking forward to reporting to Cid. She could just picture him, sitting behind his desk, slowly turning a mottled purple color as she related the tale. Cid didn't get angry very easily, but when he did it was like watching a suit of Magitek Armor malfunction and go haywire. Everything within reach was leveled. Lilean had spent a large part of her childhood and internship under Cid experimenting with just how far she could push him until he fell over the edge, and she knew with certainty that, in this case, he would go straight over and down.
"But it's not my fault!" she said aloud angrily. It just wasn't fair. Edgar had not kept up with her, and then he'd been stupid enough to go wander off on his own in the Factory. In the Factory. Lilean didn't even know how big it was—she doubted Cid did, either. It had just always sort of…expanded. She couldn't recall the last time anyone had actually planned the expansions, it just seemed to happen that one day someone would be wandering down in an obscure corridor and discover a new storage complex or something. Lilean groaned. Edgar was somewhere in there, and she had to find him.
Then—as Lilean stood, head still pressed up against the wall, eyes still staring listlessly down at the floor, it came to her. An impish, clever little voice that had been her constant companion during her childhood—and still was.
Who says you have to go find him?
Lilean stood up straight, blinking. And then, without a second thought or qualm of any sort, she tiptoed passed the entrance to the hallway of offices, and marched defiantly out of the Magitek Factory. To hell with it all, she thought, and for all the trouble, I'm taking the rest of the day off.
* * *
Leo tapped his fingers impatiently on the table. The King was now nearly fifteen minutes late, and Leo was not at all pleased. Across from him Celes sat silently reading a magazine, immobile save for when she turned a page. Leo rested his chin in his hand and glared around at the up-scale restaurant. He had again forced himself to put on his formal uniform, for him quite a painful undertaking. Miraculously, Celes had as well, and it had been a bit of a shock for Leo to find her clad in black for once, instead of the yellow uniform of a Magitek Knight she usually wore. She appeared completely impervious to the tardiness of King Edgar, but Leo made no attempt to hide his agitation. He might have put a bit more effort into patience had he actually liked the King, but, alas, he did not.
"I don't think he's going to come," he said finally.
Celes glanced up at him. "Are you certain?" she replied, almost lazily.
"It's nearly one o'clock, and we haven't seen heads or tails of him. He could've at least sent a messenger or something if he wasn't going to come."
"By 'almost one o'clock,' you do mean twelve forty-five, don't you?"
"Well…yeah."
"That's not almost."
"Hmph."
Celes' mouth twitched up a little. Leo was renowned throughout Vector for his patience and tolerance. If only they could see him now… she thought ruefully. He really didn't like Edgar, though heaven only knew why. Perhaps… Celes frowned slightly. She thought of the attentions Edgar showered on women, most ignored him or spurned him outright but he took it all in stride and never seemed put off by it. Moreover, he did land one every now and again. Celes couldn't remember Leo ever having a girlfriend, though most would be willing enough, she assumed. So perhaps…perhaps Leo's jealous? The idea seemed silly. Why would he be? Celes was sure there were dozens of girls just dying for a date with the gallant general. But then…why do I never see him with one? Of course, it could just be that Leo was fanatically secret about it. That's gotta be it. He's got a girlfriend somewhere, and he's just trying to avoid undue and unwanted attention.
Celes snorted. The idea was ridiculous.
"Bless you," Leo said.
"Oh, uh, thanks," she answered. She surprised herself. Her mind barely ever drifted off like that. Still, the more she thought about it, the more puzzling it seemed.
"Hey, Celes," Leo said, "could I ask you something?"
"I guess," she shrugged. "Go ahead."
Leo leaned across the table toward her with a conspiratorial grin, suddenly looking very boyish. "I wanna know how the heck you managed to get out of that meeting the day Edgar arrived. Teach me your trick for next time."
Celes looked at him, amused.
" I just said I had important work that needed attending to and couldn't wait. I had to be present to greet the King, though, of course."
Leo blinked. This solution had never occurred to him.
Celes, divining this, said, "You never think just to lie, do you?"
Leo shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Um, no." He didn't. This was too much. "To hell with the King," he said, standing quickly, "I'm leaving."
"Pressing work to do, Leo?" Celes said, lifting an eyebrow.
"Exactly."
* * *
Lilean marched out resolutely toward the shooting range, bow in hand, quiver full of arrows on her back. She smiled. It had been a long while since she had last practiced her archery—she felt a twinge of guilt. The bow had always been her favorite weapon, oh, she did well enough in fencing but she hadn't truly taken to it. There were certain unfortunate limitations to archery though, such as its utter uselessness in close combat. But that in no way diminished Lilean's preference.
Arriving at the range, Lilean picked a target set at ten meters on which to warm up. She noted that the field was relatively deserted—all the better. No one would get in her way. Pulling an arrow from her quiver, Lilean nocked an arrow to her bowstring and took aim. The bowstring snapped back with a low twang and the arrow hummed through the air to plant itself well above the bulls-eye.
"Bleah," Lilean said, as much about her bowstring as about her marksmanship. The tension on the string was much looser than was her preference, she could tell by the tone when plucked. "I should have checked before I left," she muttered. She unstrung the bow and restrung it, plucking the string and testing the sound as solemnly as any violinist would his instrument. When the tone met her satisfaction, she let fly another arrow. It still landed well off mark, but with a good deal more power than before. Lilean grinned. That was more like it! She warmed up until she was effortlessly hitting the bulls-eye at ten meters, then moved up in distance.
"Thirty meters," she said absently. The bulls-eye was just a blue smudge on the target, which also looked tiny at this distance. Lilean drew back and released an arrow…which flew well over the target and a long ways behind it.
"GODDAMN IT!" Lilean yelled. What rotten luck. Picking up her quiver, and making sure the coast was clear of other archers' flying arrows, Lilean trudged after her own. After a few minutes she reached the target. The arrow was nowhere to be seen. Well what did you expect? she told herself. It had been a strong shot. Fortunately, there was no wind, so all she had to do was keep walking in a straight line past the target and she should find it. She felt rather miffed at having to do this, the law that required all archers at the range to account for all of their arrows was rather new, instated after a near-fatal accident involving Kefka. Emperor Gestahl's chief advisor had not been happy.
Lilean jogged over the lawn, scanning the grass for her rogue arrow. The shooting range was west of the palace, and faced the gardens. Lilean could see the low stone wall a few hundred meters up ahead and she hoped fervently that her arrow hadn't cleared it. It would be a pain to climb the wall, low as it was.
As she approached, Lilean's hopes fell. The arrow nowhere in sight, it was obvious that if had flown over the wall. She groaned.
"Great, now I'm going to have to climb it."
The wall wasn't built very high, but Lilean was rather short and it was still above her head. She scanned it for a moment, backed off a few paces, then dashed for it and jumped.
"OUMPH!" Lilean very nearly had the wind knocked out of her as her stomach hit the edge of the stones. Gasping for breath, she scrambled for a grip before slithering over the wall. Fortunately the garden grounds were raised above the lawn's level so she didn't have as far to fall as she'd had to jump.
She leaned against the wall for a moment to catch her breath, glad to have gotten over it on the first try, and even more glad that she had changed out of her white uniform before her practice session. As her breathing returned to normal she stood and began walking through the garden in the continuing straight line.
"Gotta be around here somewhere…" she muttered as she swung her head from side to side, checking the bushes. This particular garden was filled with fragrant herb bushes, some taller than she was. After a bit of walking, Lilean decided that she didn't really mind chasing her arrow halfway across Vector, even if it meant scaling the occasional wall, after all, it was a gorgeous day, warm and sunny with blue skies and not a cloud to be seen. She felt decidedly sorry for the residents of the Northern Continent; it was currently winter there.
As Lilean approached another low stone wall (this one, however, with a gate) she distinctly heard a voice. She approached the gate for a look. She couldn't see through the bars, the speaker was hidden behind another giant bush. Who was it? Lilean could hear her more clearly now—it was definitely a woman, an older woman, as the voice sounded mature, but not yet elderly.
"Oh, my," she was saying, musing, "this is quite an unpleasant shock. But it won't be too difficult to fix up, fortunately."
Lilean, puzzled, pushed open the gate and carefully shut it behind her, then peered around the corner of the bush.
She found herself face to face with General Razi.
Razi must have been surprised, but her face registered nothing. Instead, she looked down at Lilean with a critical eye. Lilean stood, unspeaking, shocked and shrinking a bit under the fantastically tall general's stare. It wasn't often that she found herself at such a loss for words and so vulnerable-feeling. Lilean had heard of General Razi, of course, and seen her from a distance, but she had never met her. Neither Leo nor Cid spoke much of her and she hardly had any contact with Celes anymore. The rumors that circulated in Vector about Razi were numerous—more existed about her than about any other officer, even Celes—and ranged from the slightly freakish to completely outrageous. Nearly all were negative. It was hardly surprising then, that Lilean quailed at the encounter.
"Lilean Sette, isn't it?" Razi asked. Her voice was commanding, every bit that of a general's.
Lilean nodded and managed to stammer out a, "Yes, Ma'am."
"Sir," Razi corrected. Lilean said nothing but her eyes must have betrayed surprise because Razi continued, "I am accustomed to being addressed as 'Sir.' "
"Yes, Sir."
Razi cast another critical look at Lilean, as if appraising her.
"Well," she said, "I suppose then you must be the one responsible for this?"
Until then Lilean hadn't noticed what she carried in her hand—a large, glossy raven, with an arrow through its wing.
Lilean's eyes widened at the sight. The bird cast one evil-looking, yellow eye in her direction and squawked angrily. Her gut reaction was to deny the charges, but she realized with a sinking feeling that with a bow slung across her shoulders and a quiver full of arrows with fletching matching that of the one through the raven's wing across her back, there was no point in denying anything. At least she had found her missing arrow.
"I—um, yes, that is my arrow, Sir," Lilean replied sullenly. This was it. She was done for.
Razi cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes at Lilean. That appraising look again. Lilean could have sworn that Razi was sizing her up.
"You are a magic user, are you not?" demanded the general.
"Yes, Sir, I am," Lilean answered, looking up, a bit surprised. It was common knowledge—every one of the students in the Magitek Factory was infused upon starting their courses. It was considered a necessary precaution in cases of malfunctioning Magitek Armor.
"Which Esper was yours, Miss Sette?"
"Ifrit, Sir." The Esper of fire.
"But you know Cure, as well as the fire spells." It wasn't a question.
"Yes, Sir." Lilean shifted uncomfortably under the general's unblinking stare. Another precaution, every magic user in Vector knew at least Cure.
"Well, then, I believe you can make up for the damage. Hold out your wing, Kali."
The raven obediently stretched out the punctured wing without even so much as a squawk of complaint. Razi carefully removed the offending arrow, pulling it back out the way it had come in so as to avoid pulling the fletching through the wound. Lilean suddenly found herself extremely glad that these were just sharpened practice arrows, and not the wickedly barbed things used in battle.
Razi held Kali, the raven, out to Lilean and raised her eyebrows. Her face betrayed no hint of emotion, but Lilean knew what was expected of her. Cupping her hands over the bleeding wound in the raven's wing—they were practically shaking, she was so nervous— she muttered the incantation to the spell.
"Cure," she spoke at length, nearly whispering, and before her eyes the blood dried, and the wound closed. After a few seconds, it was impossible to tell the wing had been hurt at all. Kali gave a great shriek of delight and flapped her wings, flying up to her mistress' shoulder, where she stayed, her powerful talons gripping Razi's black uniform.
Lilean lowered her hands. She was immensely relieved, and she was sure it showed. Her hands still trembled slightly and she had the mad urge to step on both of them, but she remained immobile.
"Good work, Miss Sette," Razi said, handing Lilean back her arrow, still caked in blood. "And I don't think I need tell you to watch your aim more carefully from now on, when you practice." She stroked the raven's glossy black feathers absently. "I'm not sure Kali would take very kindly to another arrow through her wing."
Again the raven fixed Lilean with a malevolent glare, and her throat went dry.
"Y-yes, Sir," she stammered. The hairs prickled on the back of her neck and she couldn't help the sneaking suspicion that Kali could understand every word they said.
"You are dismissed, Miss Sette."
Lilean bowed—something she almost never did but which seemed appropriate in the situation—and turned to leave. She wanted nothing more than to run headlong out of the garden and as far away from General Razi as possible, but she forced herself to walk as deliberately as she could, trying to retain the shreds of her dignity. But then…something stopped her. An insatiable curiosity overcame her, and though it terrified her to do so, she turned around, crouched down, and crept back toward where Razi still stood, taking care to remain hidden by the bushes.
Razi was reaching into her jacket, and as Lilean watched she removed a sealed envelope. Lilean squinted, but couldn't make out the crest imprinted on the dark red wax. For some inexplicable reason, she felt sure that it wasn't the black rose of Vector. Wordlessly, Razi held up the envelope, and Kali jumped from her shoulder, seized the envelope in her talons and flew away to the northeast. Razi watched the bird until it was nothing more than a black speck in the sky, then turned to leave. Lilean crept away before the general could find her, making sure to take the most roundabout path back to the city she could. She shivered at the close call. Lucky she had been able to heal that bird. If she hadn't…Lilean didn't even want to imagine what the consequences might have been.
As she made her way back to her room at the officer's barracks, something began to haggle in her mind. There was something Razi had said, it hadn't sounded right, she was sure…that was it!
"Oh my, this is quite an unpleasant shock. But it won't be too difficult to fix up, fortunately…"
How could that be? By the time Razi would have been able to make it back to the city to find a healer, the wound would have clotted, even if she had removed the arrow ahead of time. The Cure spell wasn't powerful enough to heal a wound that had already clotted, it needed to be fresh. And to Lilean's knowledge, nobody in Vector had yet developed a more powerful healing spell. She would know, too, if somebody had, she had access to all of the records in Cid's office. Something occurred to Lilean. She couldn't have…there was no way she could have known I was there. But, Lilean realized with an unpleasant start, it was either that or someone in Vector had indeed managed to develop the next level Cure spell. She found herself hoping desperately for the latter explanation, but she found herself unable to quell her doubts.
* * *
Out in the sunshine, away from the restaurant and the diplomatic formalities required of a general, Leo felt better. He closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. Well, no matter what Celes thought, he did have real work to do and he would be glad to get it done early. Even so, he was still very annoyed that Edgar had unceremoniously decided to just abandon his lunch meeting. It was very rude.
Leo strolled around Vector, heading in the general direction of his office but taking his time. There was no rush. As he walked, he noticed someone hurrying up to him. A familiar, short, round person in a yellow raincoat.
"Hey, Cid," he said, "What's up? You still wear that thing, even when it's sunny?"
Cid glared at him in mock annoyance.
"I always wear it," he replied. Leo laughed.
"Actually, Leo," Cid continued, creasing his brows in concern, "I just spotted you and was wondering if you'd seen Lilean at all today. I haven't seen her since seven-fifteen, when she left on her tour with King Edgar."
Leo looked at Cid curiously, "No I haven't seen her. But that's strange, because I'm supposed to be at a lunch meeting with King Edgar right now. He never showed up."
"That's…right," Cid said thoughtfully, "I did think it a bit bizarre when I saw you…it's only about one-fifteen, after all…" He trailed off.
Leo was considering this situation, too, and he wondered. "Do you think, Cid, no, it's not…like…" But Leo had to admit, it would be like her.
Cid was looking up at him. "What's not like what?"
"Well, do you think she could have…lost him and decided not to tell you? Or maybe," he added quickly, noticing the color rising in Cid's cheeks at this suggestion, "she's still in there looking for him."
He couldn't tell whether or not Cid had heard that last part. His face had turned a strange mottled color.
"Lilean…Sette…" he managed to croak, then fell silent. After a pause, he spoke again, his voice clipped and controlled. "Thank you, Leo." He turned smartly and walked stiffly back in the direction of the Factory.
Leo winced. "Lilean," he said, "for your sake, if you did lose Edgar in the Factory, I sure as hell hope you're still in there, looking for him."