Balamb Garden's Yuletide Vacation
Chapter Twelve
Tuesday, December the Twelfth
The main atrium was crowded with SeeDs and upperclassmen going from here to there as morning classes had just let out for the lunch hour. Many of them were quite surprised to espy Rinoa's latest decorating idea due to the sheer danger associated with it.
The dark-haired young woman was hanging holiday lighting from the high ceiling with the help of Zell, who was steadying the twenty-five foot stepladder that she was standing on. They were also amused with Rinoa's latest holiday outfit. She wore a red velvet dress with white fur trim that created the wide lapels. A broad black belt cinched her waist, and below that the dress billowed out over a set of very wide hoops. Many of the onlookers were discussing just how she could manage to negotiate the ladder in a hoopskirt.
The process was painfully slow as Rinoa had to drive a large metal staple from a staple gun every six to twelve inches to affix the wiring. After she had reached out as far as she could, the young sorceress would then have to come down the entire ladder to the floor and help Zell move it a couple of feet and then turn around and go right back up. They had already been hard at work with this for over an hour and only a third of the circle of lighting that Rinoa wanted completed was finished.
Rinoa was scheduled to meet Andrea for lunch in the cafeteria and she compulsively desired to have this entire job completed before then. This was causing her to take more and more dangerous chances as she was reaching out further and further from the ladder to continue stapling. She was attempting cut down on the number of trips she would have to make down the ladder and then back up.
Rinoa had just reached out further than she had attempted before to place a staple a good three feet away from the ladder. In fact, her only contact with the ladder was her right foot that was planted on the next to the top rung. Rinoa had managed to reach out that far by exerting extreme pressure with her arms against the ceiling. Just as she shot the staple from the staple gun over the wiring into the ceiling, two SeeDs that knew Zell from when they were upperclassmen together happened by and began to speak with him.
"Hey Zell," one of them, a redheaded youth named Zack, said. "We just saw Nicole in the lunchroom and she was wondering where you were."
"Oh no! I forgot all about that," Zell exclaimed. "She's gonna kill me and she's already mad at me." Zell, in his excitement over missing his lunch date with his girlfriend, forgot to maintain control of the ladder. It toppled over like a giant oak struck by lightning leaving Rinoa hanging onto the flimsy wiring twenty-five feet in the air.
"Hellllllllp!!!" she screamed in a voice that only Rinoa could. It incited everyone in the entire atrium into action except for the person for whom it was intended. Zell froze in his tracks unable to move in shock and chagrin.
Rinoa kept moving her hands quickly back along the lighting that had already been put up. As the staples pulled out under her weight, one by one, her long legs dangled like the clapper of a bell within her wide skirt. A vast number of male upperclassmen had run up to the scene of the impending accident. Their long necks craned upwards to the dome of the atrium directly under Rinoa.
"That's a nice view," admitted one.
"Yes, white with lace trim, aren't they?" agreed another. The group had to have good cooperation because they needed to be able to move quickly by silent consensus to remain directly beneath the young beauty. It was always good to see how their training to be SeeDs could pay such high dividends in an emergency.
Meanwhile Zell still stood rooted to his spot, mouth agape, staring upwards, brain struck cold, unable to begin to handle the ramifications of his latest disaster. Having heard Rinoa's screaming and recognizing that voice anywhere, Selphie came dashing up from the library corridor just as Rinoa was down to her last staple.
"Oh Zell! You're trying to kill Rinoa again!" She shoved the martial artist dislodging him from his trance. "Help me get this ladder back up!" Selphie commanded.
Too late! Rinoa came spiraling downward looking as if she were performing a special jumping trick of some sort. Many in the crowd didn't realize this wasn't a planned activity, and they thought the young sorceress had devised yet another way to celebrate the holidays. Zell continued to stand affixed, unable to move in any way, but Selphie turned away not having the heart to witness such an awful sight...and at holiday time to boot.
Luckily the skirt she wore acted as a parachute of sorts and softened Rinoa's landing as she splatted into the now huge and still growing crowd of upperclassman directly beneath her. The mass of peeping toms broke her fall completely leaving her undamaged and she slid off their bodies beginning with their heads then down their backs. Rinoa was standing firm once again on the Garden floor just as Squall came running up.
The young sorceress was surprised to notice that the zombie spell must have finally worn off and that he was no longer green. Rinoa looked at the commander disdainfully before tossing her hair and giving him her back with a loud "Hmmph!"
"Come Selphie," Rinoa invited linking her arm through one of Selphie's. "We'll away to lunch." The two women sashayed from the scene while the crowd cheered uproarishly, most thinking they had witnessed a stunt of the first magnitude.
~*~
"Edea said you wished to talk to me about something concerning when you all were at the orphanage," Cid began after beckoning Quistis to take a seat in front of his desk.
"Yes." Quistis nodded. "Thanks for seeing me so quickly at such a busy time of year. I was wondering if there was something you possibly remembered about Seifer that would give me insight into what he is attempting to accomplish."
"Well, that's an unusual request," Cid mused. He sat back in his comfortable leather chair and cast his mind back fifteen years. After a few minutes had passed, he spoke slowly, almost as if he were still formulating his response. "Looking back, I think at the time, everyone thought that Squall was a loner, but I think we were wrong. Squall always had Ellone and after she left, he always had you and Selphie looking after him. Edea, too, spent a great deal of time with him. The real loner was Seifer."
Cid pulled out a chamois and began to buff his nails absently as he spoke. "I remember you attempted to help him as much as you could just as you did Squall, but he would push you away. By the way, I don't mean emotionally, I mean literally. He pushed you into the side of the building; he would push you to the ground. One day he actually pushed you all the way down the steps and into the water. Well, anyway you get the picture. Why, one day the little demon pushed you into our bedroom when Edea and I -."
Quistis interrupted the recollection by coughing loudly several times. "Oh, sorry," Cid apologized. "I feel that the basis of all Seifer's behavior began back then. He was so frightened that others wouldn't accept him that he never gave them a chance to accept him. Seifer would not only act in such a way that it was a foregone conclusion that his behavior would be rejected, but he also made it clear that he was rejecting them first."
"Therefore," Quistis said slowly, more as if she were thinking aloud rather than speaking to someone. "Being the one in control is very important to Seifer. He would rather reject people immediately and feel powerful, rather than give them the opportunity to reject him thereby casting him in the weaker position."
"Yes," agreed Cid. "I think you've hit on something there."
Quistis stood up to depart. "Thank you, Headmaster. You've been a big help."
Cid arose from his chair also. "You're welcome, Quistis. But there's one other thing," he added.
"What's that?" the young woman asked, naturally thinking Cid had remembered something more that would help her understand Seifer.
"You could have been describing yourself," Cid conjectured.
I'm not like that! Quistis' mind screamed defiantly.
"Oh, not to the extent Seifer is," Cid elaborated as though he could read her mind. "But you hold people at arm's length, never allowing them to really know you." He had circled around his desk to where he now stood before Quistis. He put his hand gently on her shoulder. "Who do you love, Quistis? And who do you allow to love you?" Cid inquired plaintively.
Appearing quite indignant at the Headmaster's accusation, Quistis retorted, "There's Selp-."
"No, Quistis," Cid interrupted not unkindly, shaking his head gently. "I mean, love..." -he emphasized the word love by gripping her shoulder gently- "with great passion...who do you trust unconditionally… that come what may they will never betray you?"
Tears from seemingly nowhere suddenly sprang to Quistis' eyes and the name Matt died aborning her lips. "No one," she whispered.
Cid suddenly found himself in a terribly uncomfortable position as he tried to comfort Quistis. "Now, now… now, now…" was all Cid could say as the blond woman sobbed on his shoulder. He honestly hadn't realized his speech would cause this sort of reaction from Quistis.
When she was finished, Quistis dried her eyes and looked sheepishly at Cid. "Sorry," she mumbled, blushing.
"Oh no, Quistis," comforted Cid, "we've known each other far too long to be embarrassed over emotional matters."
Quistis smiled slightly. "Thanks." She was still embarrassed and edged her way to the door.
"You're very welcome, my dear," said Cid. "And if you need anymore help just call on me." He smiled at the teenaged instructor kindly.
"I will," she said and pulled the door closed behind her. Taking in a shuddery breath, Quistis made her way down to the coffee shop.
"Every time a light bulb burns out an angel gets his wings," Nicole was saying to Rinoa, Andrea and Selphie when Quistis arrived. "That's why," she continued, "so many holiday lights go out at inopportune moments… more angels earn their wings around this holy time of year than any other.
Quistis took a seat at the table and asked, "Ummm… what on earth are you guys talking about?"
"Oh, hi Quisty," said Rinoa, "Nicole was just telling us about Mystic Hyneism."
"Yeah," said Selphie, "it's really cool!"
Oh great, thought Quistis, all we need is for Rinoa to get involved in a bizarre fringe religion.
"I'm a goddess!" announced Rinoa with a wide smile.
"Well, not exactly, Rinoa," said Nicole. "Sorceresses are holy people to us because you are the embodiment of Hyne's power on the planet."
Rinoa nodded. "And that makes me a goddess!"
"Ummm… I guess so," relented Nicole, not wanting to argue. She was just happy her friends were open to the idea and not ridiculing her religious beliefs.
Quistis had nothing constructive to say, and not being one to put down another person's beliefs she just remained silent. She savored her mochachino as she listened to the conversation, which only grew more bizarre.
"So how do angels earn their wings after death?" questioned Andrea.
"By doing good deeds for the living," said Nicole matter-of-factly.
Selphie scooped up a finger full of whipped cream from her hot chocolate and slurped at it thoughtfully. "Is that what GFs are? Just spirits helping out people so they can get into heaven?"
"Oh no," said Nicole, "Guardian Forces are really fallen gods." She took a sip of her coffee and went on to explain, "You see, after the other gods tricked humans into stealing Hyne's power, Hyne used what was left of her strength to turn the offending gods into slaves to the people that now bore her power."
"Wait a minute," said Quistis, "I thought Hyne gave sorceresses her power as a trick."
Nicole nodded. "That's the popularly accepted myth," she agreed. "But think about it, Quistis, why would any god give up her power willingly? And how is that a trick?"
"But," Quistis argued, "the story also said that Hyne kept the stronger part of her power to herself. Wait, isn't Hyne a he?"
"Gods have no gender, Quisty. He or she is irrelevant," Nicole informed her before explaining, "The stronger power that Hyne maintained was her wisdom, no one can steal that. Wisdom is developed over time."
"Hmmm…that's definitely something to think about," said Quistis. Some of what Nicole was saying was making sense, Quistis had to admit. But that light bulb thing is just too much. "But wait… what about the part about Hyne stealing the children of the people?"
"Lies," said Nicole bitterly.
"So what's Hyne doing now?" asked Rinoa. Quistis could see that the sorceress' eyes had an odd glow of fanaticism to them. The instructor shivered in spite of the warmth of the coffee shop.
"Well, according to the Book of Hyne," explained Nicole, "after her power was stolen there was nothing Hyne could do for her people except share her vast wisdom. But humans were too busy fighting over her power to listen so she went to sleep."
"Who went to sleep?" asked Zell who had just jogged over to the table.
"Hyne," said Nicole.
Zell looked thoroughly perplexed. "Huh?"
"Zell," said Rinoa, whose smile indicated she had forgiven him for the earlier mishap, "did you know that every time a light bulb burns out it means an angel has gotten his wings?"
Zell chuckled. "Oh no… did you go to that new age shop that just opened in Balamb? I heard they have a whole section dedicated to that silly new religion."
Nicole flushed. "Silly? New religion?"
"Yeah," Zell continued taking absolutely no notice of Nicole's obvious distress, "Mystic Hyneism, I think it's called. Have you ever heard anything so dumb as that light bulb thing?"
Quistis hid her face behind her hand and looked through her fingers at Nicole who already appeared ready to explode. Rinoa, Andrea, and Selphie were fidgeting in their seats, unsure how to react to Zell's ridicule.
"I mean," said Zell, still laughing, "what happened before there were light bulbs?" -chuckle- " Did fires go out or something?" -guffaw- "Or maybe there were no angels back then either. Maybe angels and light bulbs were invented at the same time." Unable to contain his laughter any longer, the martial artist clutched at his stomach and collapsed into a nearby chair.
"I have had enough!" screeched Nicole, whose face was a deep red. Zell immediately stopped laughing and looked up in surprise. "I'll have you know that Mystic Hyneism is probably the oldest religion still practiced on this planet. And that means it is the truth!"
Tossing her pigtail, Nicole said to the other women at the table, "Come, my spiritual sisters! We will adjourn to my room where I will read to you from the Book of Hyne."
Quistis soon found herself forcibly dragged by Rinoa and Selphie, while Zell looked on with an expression of utter confusion.
~*~
Seifer sat at a brand new writing desk that had been purloined from one of the Garden storerooms. He was hard at work filling out some official appearing forms. For each new form he would choose a pen with a different color or shade of ink than the previous one and signing them from a list of names that he had on the table before him. Being an expert forger, he took a great deal of time to disguise his handwriting from form to form; on some of them he wrote in huge sprawling loops and on others he would print in tiny anal-retentive letters. There was a large stack of already completed forms sitting to his left.
Raijin and Fujin came walking up to the table after arriving at the MD level via the ladder. Raijin was carrying a large carton from which steam was arising. "Seifer, we brought dinner, ya know. What'cha doing?"
Without glancing up, Seifer answered, "Filling out official sighting reports." The ex-knight spoke pleasantly for a change. He loved filling out forms of false sightings of himself because he knew Commander Puberty was so scrupulous in his duties that he would spend hours reading each one thoroughly.
Raijin set the food down on the dining table and crossed to Seifer. "Lemme see," he said picking up one of the finished forms and reading aloud. "Seifer Almasy was observed in the women's shower room with a video camera directly following girls' physical training class. He told us if we wanted the tape we needed to pay him five thousand Gil. Signed, Ophelia Tyttiis."
"Seifer, did you really do that?" Raijin inquired in confusion. Before Seifer could answer, Fujin kicked Raijin hard in the shin. "Ow! What'dya do that for, ya know?"
Seifer completed another form and laid it on the stack of forms that were finished. He glanced up and asked, "What did you find about that she-devil who is hanging around Rinoa?"
Raijin made a supreme effort to pull himself together and to give his report in a businesslike fashion. "Her name is Andrea Kettleway. She's seventeen years old, ya know. Apparently some people discovered her in a bassinet by the side of the road in Deling when she was approximately three days old. They raised her until age six and then having many children of their own and great difficulty supporting them, ya know, because of the depression following the First Sorceress War they took her to Trabia Garden. Her and Selphie were friends, ya know and she just transferred here from Trabia through Selphie's help. That's it, ya know."
Seifer looked at his friend, disciple, and cohort in wonderment. "That was a very good report," he finally said. "Good job, Raij," he praised.
"Well, ya know, I used one of those white pages private detective agencies. I charged it to Cid's credit card, ya know."
"Haha!" Seifer guffawed. Standing up from the table, he suggested, "Let's eat. What'd you get?"
"HOT DOGS," Fujin answered.
"Oh."
As they ate, Seifer explained what he learned of Nicole and her belief in Mystic Hyneism. When Seifer finished eating, signified by his pushing his plate and standing up from the table, he reached into the deep pocket of his long military coat and pulled out several paperback books. Flipping them to Raijin, Seifer ordered, "Find me some stuff that'll scare her, I'm going to disguise myself as a ghost."
"Where did you get these, Seifer, ya know?" Raijin asked holding up paperback copies of Hamlet, MacBeth, and some other Shakespearean titles.
"I liberated those from Quistis' room. She'll never miss them since she'll never play anything other than a candle-bearer or a maid because of Rinoa getting all the good parts. Mwahaha!"
"Seifer," Raijin asked. "Why do you keep doing that? It's scaring us, ya know."
"I don't why know myself, Raij. I'll try to hold it down, it's worrying me a little too."
Hours later, Seifer had completed his preparations. He had covered himself with a phosphorescent spray that was marketed to be used for plays or such times at the Sorceress' Sabbath in October. The blond prankster was also planning to use at least one hero drink (even though they were frightfully expensive), which would cause him to appear as a shimmering, transparent wraith.
"Here ya go, Seifer," Raijin said handing him a short list of quotes.
"Thanks." Seifer was preoccupied with searching the Garden master database in order to locate and memorize the placement of the secret entrance to Nicole's room. Ain't technology grand? he thought with a wolfish grin
"Wish me luck," Seifer declared preparing to leave the MD level.
"Good luck!" Raijin called after him.
Luck? thought Fujin. Since when does Seifer think he needs luck?
Seifer moved quickly through the passageways in the walls. Although once he thought he heard the sound of Nida's voice somewhere, the self-made specter knew that had to be wrong. Nida was long gone from the Garden.
All was silent in Garden as Seifer stepped into Nicole's room and loomed over her. Nicole was sleeping soundly and mumbling something incomprehensible. Seifer held his cheat sheet of quotes cupped in his right hand and he began to moan in a low voice, "Oh Nicole, Nicole, help me."
The young woman sat straight up in her bed, every hair on her body standing on end. "Ekkkk!" Nicole began to scream.
Reading from his paper, Seifer intoned, "Beware the Ides of March."
"Ekkkk!" Nicole continued to cry out. She suddenly stopped and asked, "What are the Ides of March?"
That dumb Raijin. That's from Julius Caesar. "Oh, never mind," Seifer explained. "That was wrong. Hang on."
"Okay," Nicole agreed.
Seifer began to moan again. "My hour is almost come, when I to sulph'rous and tormenting flames must render up myself."
"Oh no!" Nicole cried out. "Ekkkk!" The young woman suddenly decided that discretion was the best part of valor and she bolted from the room so quickly it was all Seifer could do to jump from her path.
Realizing that the other young women on the floor would leave their rooms to discover what all the excitement was, Seifer decided it was time for him to disappear...and that he quickly did.
Nicole was soon surrounded by young women who had come tumbling out of their rooms at the very first sound of her screams. Nicole was shaking uncontrollably and continually racked with sobs.
Selphie attempted to hug her, although Nicole appeared to be inconsolable at the present time. "What's wrong, Nicole?" she asked in a soothing voice attempting to calm the young woman down enough to discover what horrible thing had transpired.
As most people have a tendency to picture his or her own worse fears when someone is mysteriously upset or frightened, Selphie's imagination suddenly began to form a twisted picture. She imagined that Irvine had mistakenly broken into Nicole's room on a search for Selphie herself. Although Selphie's room wasn't located on this wing, she had agreed to sleep over in Rinoa's room so they could continue talking about Mystic Hyneism late into the evening. In Selphie's morbid fantasy Irvine wasn't wearing a stitch of clothing and was demanding immediate sex. Selphie began to feel uncomfortably warm and flushed.
Also surrounding the hysterical young woman and attempting to offer their solace was Reba, Shana, and Rinoa. Andrea was also there as she had been spending almost twenty-four hours a day with Rinoa since their run-in over her flirting with Squall. Quistis stood in the back of the immediate group. She was just as concerned as the other young women, but she felt as though the women in front could handle the situation just as well or even better than she could.
Rinoa entreated, "Slow down and take deep breaths." She was becoming frightened that Nicole was going to begin hyperventilating and then pass out. Finally after a matter of minutes had passed Nicole calmed down enough to speak in a halting fashion.
"It...uph... was...S-Seifer," she stammered.
"Oh no," gasped Shana. "How horrible! Seifer was in your room?"
Finally! thought Quistis, Someone else believes me!
"You had a nightmare didn't you, Nicole?" asked Selphie, her face flushed from her continued imaginings of Irvine naked, preparing to ravage a young innocent woman with his masculine virility.
"Uh-uh, it was really Seifer!"
"Did he try to assault you?" asked Reba with a glimmer in her eye.
"No, no!" Nicole exclaimed shaking her head vigorously.
"Oh, how horrible," Reba said with a disappointed tone, "he didn't try to assault you."
While several of the young women glanced at Reba with strange looks, Rinoa snickered and ducked her head.
"No, no! It wasn't Seifer himself," Nicole explained.
"If it wasn't Seifer, who was it?" Selphie demanded.
"It was Seifer," Nicole said.
As she observed Selphie becoming frustrated with this seeming semantic problem, Rinoa asked, "What are you saying, Nicole?"
"He was a ghost!" Nicole finally said with a gasp.
"A ghost!" echoed Shana and Reba.
"Get out of here," Quistis said sarcastically.
"No, really," Nicole insisted. "He was a ghost and he said he was preparing to be sent to hell!"
"Oh, no!" exclaimed Rinoa.
"Well, that figures," Shana said. "If anyone deserves to, it's him."
"Oh, don't say that," Nicole implored. "No one deserves that. He seemed so lonely."
I'm sure that's the first thing accurate thing she's said tonight, Quistis thought bitterly.
Selphie turned to Quistis with a satisfied expression on her face. "There you see, Quistis! Seifer isn't living here! It's his ghost that's been causing all the trouble!"
"Whatever," muttered Quistis, walking away in disgust.
Why will they believe Nicole that Seifer is a ghost, but not me that he is living in Garden?