Memories of Alcauld
Chapter 1
Rinoa Heartilly sat on the fine golden sand that marked the Alcauld coastline, the cool morning breeze caressing the strands of her dark brown hair. Balamb Garden in all its high-tech glory stood in the distance, a circular-shaped building with the oddly-shaped blue and white triangular metal pieces attached to the top, the extensions that gave the Garden its flight capability.
The sun had not risen fully yet, and it was still slightly dark. Rinoa closed her eyes and tasted the salty sea breeze on her tongue, she let the gentle sound of waves rolling up on the sandy shore envelop her entire being. She was trying to forget what she'd seen last night; the sight of the cool water gushing out from the faucet as she'd washed her face before going to bed changing its shape to deliver its warning had shaken her.
Some Sorceresses had the ability of reading the shifting shape of the waters, the waters that would deliver glimpses of the future as it took other shapes. Rinoa could read the water signs, she'd just found out last night. It was a mark of being a direct descendent of the great Hyne Herself, for Hyne was an excellent Water-Seer and could foretell a great amount of the future with every shifting of the water.
What Rinoa saw was indeed very disturbing; she had seen a new evil rising in the future, but that wasn't what troubled her. It was the fact that Rinoa saw herself as one of the causes that gave rise to that malevolence that made her so fearful. She sighed deeply and opened her eyes. By now, the sun's glow had spread across most of the sky and it was tinged with pale oranges and golds. How could she possibly be the root of the new evil? How could she, when she was perfectly happy with everything right now, when there were so many things she loved in life presently?
A canary somewhere behind her in the fields sung its lilting song. She sighed again. She simply couldn't come to terms with what she'd seen in the shifting waters last night. Perhaps she'd been tired, and her eyes had played a trick on her? Perhaps she Saw and interpreted what she's Seen wrongly?
Out of the corner of her eye, Rinoa detected a slim figure moving through the fields. Turning her head, she saw that it was a young woman of about sixteen or seventeen years of age with long hair that fell to her waist in loose waves. Even from where she was sitting, Rinoa could make out the distinct colours of the young woman's hair; it was a blend of light blond and a deep, golden brown – Rinoa had never seen hair like that before. The young woman was heading down the path to the Garden, a smile on her lips an indication that she liked mornings out on the Alcauld Plains as much as Rinoa did.
It was time to return to the Garden too. Rinoa pushed herself up from the soft sand and started to walk towards the meadow. Her footprints that were left in the sand were quickly concealed by the sand the wind had blown over even as she walked and made new depressions. If she'd studied her footprints disappearing just as she made them, she'd have felt even more uneasy – as if traces of her old self were being wiped away as the imminent malice brewed in the horizon. But as it was, the footprints went unnoticed, which was just as well, for it meant one less worry preying on her already saturated mind.
Marie Lee Trelin let herself quietly into the darkened room, shutting the smooth oak door behind her carefully. Her room-mate and best friend, Oriel Ashcroft was still deep in sleep, her goose-down duvet pulled up to her chin, her face peaceful. Long strawberry blond hair framed her sleeping face and fanned out behind her on the pillow. She let out a gentle snore.
Tip-toeing past Oriel's bed and to her own further inside the room, Marie picked her way through assorted clothing articles that seem to cover every square inch of the lavender carpet beneath. She spotted the white halter- necked top that had been missing for the past week peeking out from beneath one of Oriel's sequinned tank tops and she shook her head with a wry smile on her lips. She should have known that Oriel had borrowed her top when it first went missing – Oriel was always doing scatter-brained things like that.
The large silver clock that hung on the far wall read 7 o'clock. It was still early; her cadet trial with Instructor Trepe wasn't until 1000 hours. Marie flung herself down onto her rose-coloured bedspread and lay on her back, looking up at the ceiling. It was going to be a long day, an important one. As she let her mind wander off to the fields she had sat in earlier in the morning, she closed her eyes and reveled in the stillness of the room.
Marie walked silently through tall wild grasses, patches of colour that indicated sprays of wildflowers dotting the verdant landscape in her mind. She visualized the splashes of colour in the sky as the pale morning sun rose – vivacious hues of reds, golds, vermillions and pinks. That morning as she'd roamed the Alcauld Plains – the fields outside Balamb – she'd been trying to calm herself down at the thought of the trial that awaited her. The trial that was to determine if she got to sit for the SeeD examinations.
Everyone had been talking about Commander Leonhart's own trial in the Fire Cavern that had taken place a mere 3 years ago, when the Instructor that accompanied him had been Instructor Trepe too. He had obtained a Guardian Force in the Cavern and had scored nearly full marks in it. Commander Leonhart was legendary in the halls of Balamb as part of the party that had defeated the sorceress from the future, Ultimecia, and restored peace to their world. Recently however, Marie had heard talk of Commander Leonhart's own girlfriend – the Sorceress Rinoa – leaving him. She had no idea about the truth in these bits of gossip the female cadets frequently shared with each other concerning the gorgeous Commander, but it was true that he had been looking particularly moody in recent times.
She stifled a snort as she thought of her classmates' crushes on the Commander. He was the object of many cadets' talk during the lunch hours and the cause of many girls' flaming red faces whenever he walked past in the corridors. Marie grudgingly admitted to herself that the Commander was rather good-looking, with silky golden brown hair that sometimes covered his smoky, grey-blue eyes and fine features that were delicate yet distinctly masculine at the same time. But he was always so cold and distant; she simply couldn't see how the Sorceress Rinoa had managed to tolerate his sullenness for as long as she did.
As Oriel let out another gentle snore, Marie rolled over to her stomach and looked at her best friend affectionately. Oriel had been her closest friend for as long as she could remember, since she started her training as a cadet here in the Garden. Marie had always thought of herself as an ugly child. She had strangely coloured hair and eyes, and her features slightly odd as well.
Her light-blond and mahogany hair fell to her back in loose waves this morning, her almond-shaped light brown eyes that were speckled with aquamarine and sapphire flecks bright and fresh from the balmy breeze earlier this morning up on the Plains. As a child, she'd often despaired over her striking appearance, and even now as a young woman of seventeen, she was close to despair over her unusual looks.
"I wish I looked more like you, Oriel." Marie had said once to her best friend wistfully while playing with her long, silky strawberry blond hair that fell straight down her back. "You've got such pretty hair and eyes."
Oriel had looked at her with disbelief in her brilliant amethyst eyes and told her very sternly, "Oh, Marie, don't be silly! You've got the most amazing eyes yourself, and – and you're gorgeous!"
Still, Marie frequently thought that she stuck out like a sore thumb in the sea of girls with perfect faces and hair that was just one colour.
As Marie thought of Oriel, she remembered what she'd been meaning to tell her friend these past few weeks. It was about the Commander – she desperately hoped her usually sensible friend hadn't completely lost her wits and joined the I-Love-You-Squall fan-club. Oriel had been behaving strangely recently; she always seemed to be looking out for someone and though she did not blush whenever the topic of Squall was broached among their classmates, her ears turned a characteristic crimson – a tell-tale sign of Oriel's embarrassment that Marie had known about ever since they were both children.
Yet another gentle snore came from Oriel's side of the room, which seemed to be an invitation for Marie to rest her head on her pillow, to close her eyes and go to sleep too. She set her alarm to ring at 9 o'clock and she gave in to her desire to shut her mind out from the bustling world around, sinking into a sweet, dreamless sleep.
"Tell me again why I have to supervise this cadet's trial." Squall Leonhart muttered grumpily under his breath.
Quistis Trepe looked apologetically at him and sighed. She picked up the spoon from the dish and stirred her coffee slowly before sipping carefully at it. The Cafeteria was usually deserted this early in the morning save the occasional cadet who woke up early to do their last minute unfinished work before the first class started, and this was how Quistis liked it.
"I'm really sorry Squall, but there simply isn't anyone else to do it. Oh, but if it's such trouble, I suppose we could just get Seifer to –"
"What? No, it's all right, I'll do it. I – um – it isn't a trouble at all." Squall scowled upon hearing his rival's name. "Seifer would probably screw up the poor kid's trial anyway."
Quistis stifled a giggle and a small smile tugged at the corners of her lips. She knew that Squall would never let Seifer Almasy do anything in his place.
"Are you sure? Well, thank you then." She finished the last bit of coffee in her mug before setting it down and standing up.
Squall emptied the contents of his cup down his throat and stood up too.
"Yeah. But you owe me, Trepe." He said with the faintest traces of a smile on his lips. "You owe me big time!"
"Well... Whatever." Quistis retorted with a snort. "Remember, this morning at 1000 hours at the entrance. You're meeting a cadet by the name of Marie Lee Trelin. Now don't you scare her too much, yeah?"
And with that, Quistis was on her way down the hallway and disappeared at the corner, leaving Squall standing by himself and trying to commit to memory the time and cadet name Quistis had just told him.
"What was her name again? Marie Lee Trelin. Right. Got it. Why must these students have such difficult names to remember?" He mumbled in mild irritation and sighed. "...Whatever."
Rinoa Heartilly sat on the fine golden sand that marked the Alcauld coastline, the cool morning breeze caressing the strands of her dark brown hair. Balamb Garden in all its high-tech glory stood in the distance, a circular-shaped building with the oddly-shaped blue and white triangular metal pieces attached to the top, the extensions that gave the Garden its flight capability.
The sun had not risen fully yet, and it was still slightly dark. Rinoa closed her eyes and tasted the salty sea breeze on her tongue, she let the gentle sound of waves rolling up on the sandy shore envelop her entire being. She was trying to forget what she'd seen last night; the sight of the cool water gushing out from the faucet as she'd washed her face before going to bed changing its shape to deliver its warning had shaken her.
Some Sorceresses had the ability of reading the shifting shape of the waters, the waters that would deliver glimpses of the future as it took other shapes. Rinoa could read the water signs, she'd just found out last night. It was a mark of being a direct descendent of the great Hyne Herself, for Hyne was an excellent Water-Seer and could foretell a great amount of the future with every shifting of the water.
What Rinoa saw was indeed very disturbing; she had seen a new evil rising in the future, but that wasn't what troubled her. It was the fact that Rinoa saw herself as one of the causes that gave rise to that malevolence that made her so fearful. She sighed deeply and opened her eyes. By now, the sun's glow had spread across most of the sky and it was tinged with pale oranges and golds. How could she possibly be the root of the new evil? How could she, when she was perfectly happy with everything right now, when there were so many things she loved in life presently?
A canary somewhere behind her in the fields sung its lilting song. She sighed again. She simply couldn't come to terms with what she'd seen in the shifting waters last night. Perhaps she'd been tired, and her eyes had played a trick on her? Perhaps she Saw and interpreted what she's Seen wrongly?
Out of the corner of her eye, Rinoa detected a slim figure moving through the fields. Turning her head, she saw that it was a young woman of about sixteen or seventeen years of age with long hair that fell to her waist in loose waves. Even from where she was sitting, Rinoa could make out the distinct colours of the young woman's hair; it was a blend of light blond and a deep, golden brown – Rinoa had never seen hair like that before. The young woman was heading down the path to the Garden, a smile on her lips an indication that she liked mornings out on the Alcauld Plains as much as Rinoa did.
It was time to return to the Garden too. Rinoa pushed herself up from the soft sand and started to walk towards the meadow. Her footprints that were left in the sand were quickly concealed by the sand the wind had blown over even as she walked and made new depressions. If she'd studied her footprints disappearing just as she made them, she'd have felt even more uneasy – as if traces of her old self were being wiped away as the imminent malice brewed in the horizon. But as it was, the footprints went unnoticed, which was just as well, for it meant one less worry preying on her already saturated mind.
Marie Lee Trelin let herself quietly into the darkened room, shutting the smooth oak door behind her carefully. Her room-mate and best friend, Oriel Ashcroft was still deep in sleep, her goose-down duvet pulled up to her chin, her face peaceful. Long strawberry blond hair framed her sleeping face and fanned out behind her on the pillow. She let out a gentle snore.
Tip-toeing past Oriel's bed and to her own further inside the room, Marie picked her way through assorted clothing articles that seem to cover every square inch of the lavender carpet beneath. She spotted the white halter- necked top that had been missing for the past week peeking out from beneath one of Oriel's sequinned tank tops and she shook her head with a wry smile on her lips. She should have known that Oriel had borrowed her top when it first went missing – Oriel was always doing scatter-brained things like that.
The large silver clock that hung on the far wall read 7 o'clock. It was still early; her cadet trial with Instructor Trepe wasn't until 1000 hours. Marie flung herself down onto her rose-coloured bedspread and lay on her back, looking up at the ceiling. It was going to be a long day, an important one. As she let her mind wander off to the fields she had sat in earlier in the morning, she closed her eyes and reveled in the stillness of the room.
Marie walked silently through tall wild grasses, patches of colour that indicated sprays of wildflowers dotting the verdant landscape in her mind. She visualized the splashes of colour in the sky as the pale morning sun rose – vivacious hues of reds, golds, vermillions and pinks. That morning as she'd roamed the Alcauld Plains – the fields outside Balamb – she'd been trying to calm herself down at the thought of the trial that awaited her. The trial that was to determine if she got to sit for the SeeD examinations.
Everyone had been talking about Commander Leonhart's own trial in the Fire Cavern that had taken place a mere 3 years ago, when the Instructor that accompanied him had been Instructor Trepe too. He had obtained a Guardian Force in the Cavern and had scored nearly full marks in it. Commander Leonhart was legendary in the halls of Balamb as part of the party that had defeated the sorceress from the future, Ultimecia, and restored peace to their world. Recently however, Marie had heard talk of Commander Leonhart's own girlfriend – the Sorceress Rinoa – leaving him. She had no idea about the truth in these bits of gossip the female cadets frequently shared with each other concerning the gorgeous Commander, but it was true that he had been looking particularly moody in recent times.
She stifled a snort as she thought of her classmates' crushes on the Commander. He was the object of many cadets' talk during the lunch hours and the cause of many girls' flaming red faces whenever he walked past in the corridors. Marie grudgingly admitted to herself that the Commander was rather good-looking, with silky golden brown hair that sometimes covered his smoky, grey-blue eyes and fine features that were delicate yet distinctly masculine at the same time. But he was always so cold and distant; she simply couldn't see how the Sorceress Rinoa had managed to tolerate his sullenness for as long as she did.
As Oriel let out another gentle snore, Marie rolled over to her stomach and looked at her best friend affectionately. Oriel had been her closest friend for as long as she could remember, since she started her training as a cadet here in the Garden. Marie had always thought of herself as an ugly child. She had strangely coloured hair and eyes, and her features slightly odd as well.
Her light-blond and mahogany hair fell to her back in loose waves this morning, her almond-shaped light brown eyes that were speckled with aquamarine and sapphire flecks bright and fresh from the balmy breeze earlier this morning up on the Plains. As a child, she'd often despaired over her striking appearance, and even now as a young woman of seventeen, she was close to despair over her unusual looks.
"I wish I looked more like you, Oriel." Marie had said once to her best friend wistfully while playing with her long, silky strawberry blond hair that fell straight down her back. "You've got such pretty hair and eyes."
Oriel had looked at her with disbelief in her brilliant amethyst eyes and told her very sternly, "Oh, Marie, don't be silly! You've got the most amazing eyes yourself, and – and you're gorgeous!"
Still, Marie frequently thought that she stuck out like a sore thumb in the sea of girls with perfect faces and hair that was just one colour.
As Marie thought of Oriel, she remembered what she'd been meaning to tell her friend these past few weeks. It was about the Commander – she desperately hoped her usually sensible friend hadn't completely lost her wits and joined the I-Love-You-Squall fan-club. Oriel had been behaving strangely recently; she always seemed to be looking out for someone and though she did not blush whenever the topic of Squall was broached among their classmates, her ears turned a characteristic crimson – a tell-tale sign of Oriel's embarrassment that Marie had known about ever since they were both children.
Yet another gentle snore came from Oriel's side of the room, which seemed to be an invitation for Marie to rest her head on her pillow, to close her eyes and go to sleep too. She set her alarm to ring at 9 o'clock and she gave in to her desire to shut her mind out from the bustling world around, sinking into a sweet, dreamless sleep.
"Tell me again why I have to supervise this cadet's trial." Squall Leonhart muttered grumpily under his breath.
Quistis Trepe looked apologetically at him and sighed. She picked up the spoon from the dish and stirred her coffee slowly before sipping carefully at it. The Cafeteria was usually deserted this early in the morning save the occasional cadet who woke up early to do their last minute unfinished work before the first class started, and this was how Quistis liked it.
"I'm really sorry Squall, but there simply isn't anyone else to do it. Oh, but if it's such trouble, I suppose we could just get Seifer to –"
"What? No, it's all right, I'll do it. I – um – it isn't a trouble at all." Squall scowled upon hearing his rival's name. "Seifer would probably screw up the poor kid's trial anyway."
Quistis stifled a giggle and a small smile tugged at the corners of her lips. She knew that Squall would never let Seifer Almasy do anything in his place.
"Are you sure? Well, thank you then." She finished the last bit of coffee in her mug before setting it down and standing up.
Squall emptied the contents of his cup down his throat and stood up too.
"Yeah. But you owe me, Trepe." He said with the faintest traces of a smile on his lips. "You owe me big time!"
"Well... Whatever." Quistis retorted with a snort. "Remember, this morning at 1000 hours at the entrance. You're meeting a cadet by the name of Marie Lee Trelin. Now don't you scare her too much, yeah?"
And with that, Quistis was on her way down the hallway and disappeared at the corner, leaving Squall standing by himself and trying to commit to memory the time and cadet name Quistis had just told him.
"What was her name again? Marie Lee Trelin. Right. Got it. Why must these students have such difficult names to remember?" He mumbled in mild irritation and sighed. "...Whatever."