AN: Anyone worried about the whole 'cucumber' comment - don't be. It's a literally translated part of an old Eurovision entry - honest to God. I was at my friend's house at the time, and everyone was in stitches over it.
Book Three of the Sorcerer Arc Battle Lines Chapter Two Desperate Measures
In retrospect, Seifer realised, he should have expected Quistis and Zell to recover as fast as they did. After all, they'd both been SeeDs for longer than him, and they'd both lost friends during the battle of the Balamb and Galbadia Gardens. If at times they both paused, lost in memories, then that was only to be expected - and only their right. Everyone else had, whether for better or worse, had a few days to assimilate the destruction of Trabia Garden before the double shock of Deling and Esthar.
The news of the attacks on the two cities had been accepted much more easily. They'd seen the X-ATV61Ues and Kylari first hand. They knew the destruction that could be wrought. As two of only three that knew of Squall being a sorcerer - not counting the brunette himself - Seifer had also been able to explain Rinoa's comment. Fortunately they seemed to accept that Squall, of all people, would only have taken such drastic measures if he was completely certain that no one remained alive. As for Esthar, they were satisfied once they learned that the city had gotten off much lighter in terms of damage, and that Laguna, Kiros and Ward were safe and well.
Martine's loss, however, had also hit Quistis quite hard. She'd worked with him on a couple of missions before he'd become headmaster of Galbadia, and had remained in touch with him after that. But really, after the news of Irvine and Selphie, everything else was small fry. Seifer hadn't been able to bring himself to reveal that the two were safe and well - albeit dead - and occasionally in contact with him. It would've meant revealing his new-found ability to hear and talk with the dead, something he hadn't even admitted to Squall yet. He wasn't sure what the brunette would do. One thing he had learned from the last garbled memories that had been shared between them, was that paranoia was almost a genetic feature of the sorcerer powers - or at least had become so ever since the last lines had gone into hiding.
Squall was still unconscious when Seifer checked up on him just before heading to get some breakfast, but Dr Kadowaki didn't seem overly worried. She'd been quite happy to agree that all the brunette needed was rest - and a good meal when he woke up - but less enthusiastic about not treating his arm. Fortunately she'd conceded that, having a better idea of the seriousness of the injury, Seifer was probably in a better position to judge.
The blond nodded politely to the older woman as he entered the infirmary for the second time that morning. He paused in the doorway of Squall's room, noticing that the brunette looked healthier, even from that distance. Smiling slightly, Seifer stepped into the room, closing the door quietly behind him.
"Edea's due in tomorrow." He almost thought a wince flickered across Squall's face, but a quick brush against the sorcerer's mind revealed that the brunette was asleep - and not faking it. Seifer sighed, and sat down on the chair by the bed, his own mind in turmoil at the thought of seeing Edea in the flesh now that he knew Cid was dead. "Guess your body's as stubborn about things as you are." He snorted softly, amused by the thought.
Quit thinking so loud. Tired... The soft complaint was accompanied by a mental yawn that had the blond yawning in sympathetic reaction. And hungry... Squall added, his stomach growling slightly in agreement. Seifer rolled his eyes.
"If you think I'm smuggling food in under the watchful glare of Dr K..." He folded his arms, hoping that Squall would decide to wake up properly and hence become available to deal with the mountain of paperwork currently covering both their desks.
Get Quis and Zell on it. And I smuggled food in for you. That scotched one hope - but it did get him out of doing the paperwork. Seifer frowned. He'd never gotten Squall to...but he had. He remembered, right back in Squall's first year as a cadet...
FLASHBACK START
It was a gorgeous summer day, and, best of all, it was a holiday. No classes to attend, no work that needed immediate attention, nothing to do at all. Nothing, that was, except laze around and enjoy the sun, and the company of his two best friends - Quistis and Squall. It had been almost a year since the two blonds had seen the brunette, having been sent to Garden a year earlier than he due to their age differences. He hadn't changed much. Maybe a bit taller, a bit paler, and with a stronger air of melancholy around him than Seifer remembered, but they were all taller, all changing as they rapidly approached the dreaded 'P' - Puberty.
They'd gone down to the town earlier, showing Squall the sights and the shops. Not that there was much. The biggest draw was Zell's ma's. She welcomed them all as friends of Zell, proceeding to tell them everything he'd been doing since he'd been adopted by them - much to the younger blond's embarrassment. They'd left a red-faced Zell eagerly anticipating dinner, and had grabbed ice-creams from the local shop, eating them as they made their way back to the Garden. Even Squall had indulged, beating Seifer three games out of three at Triple Triad, and claiming the ice-cream as his prize. Seifer had been relieved rather than angry at the brunette's decision. He'd been afraid Squall would, quite rightfully, claim the one rare card in his pack - the Cerberus card. Quistis had been urging him to do so, Seifer was sure he'd felt her gesturing behind his back. But the brunette hadn't - probably wise enough to know that the blonde only wanted him to take the card so that she could win it off him later.
Quistis had returned to the dorms as evening started to draw closer, but with curfew relaxed because of the holiday, Seifer had dared Squall into an 'excursion'. Seifer's excursions were already famous - or infamous - throughout the Garden staff, but so far they'd been small stuff - raiding the canteen, the library, attempting to climb the outside route to the third floor, changing codes on staff dorms. Now, with the relaxation of curfew, even if only for one night, he was in the perfect position for a proper excursion.
Thus it was that the rising moon - full and bright - found them a fair way up the Gaulg Mountains, and notably lacking tents or any other survival gear. It wasn't so much of a problem whilst they were moving, but when exhaustion set in and they decided to stop for the night, they found the temperature dropping rapidly. It didn't help that the weather was starting to change for the worse, and wind chill soon had them huddled together as they walked.
Whether it was as they attempted to walk side by side on the narrow track, or whether it was the wind or simply an unlucky placement of his foot, neither Seifer nor Squall knew, but suddenly Seifer was falling. Squall instinctively lunged after the blond, only managing to throw himself down the slope after his friend.
When they came to rest it was in a flat clearing, surrounded by piles of boulders, that neither boy had seen before. Admittedly, their knowledge of the mountains in practice was limited, but they'd both poured over detailed 3D maps as part of their geography lessons. Seifer was aware of Squall lying on top of him. It was uncomfortable, but warm, and so he let the brunette stay put whilst he re-gathered his wits. Or at least, that was why the blond told himself he was doing it. Slowly, however, Seifer became aware that something was wrong with his leg. The cold and shock had numbed it at first, but gradually, as Squall's shared warmth seeped through his body, feeling was returning. And the feeling was not good. It felt broken...
FLASHBACK END
And it had been broken. Seifer had almost panicked then, and it had taken Squall slapping him around the face to bring the blond back to sanity. Squall, despite being a year younger, had taken over from that point. He'd stopped the bleeding by forcing the older boy to drink a potion the brunette found in his jacket pocket. And then he'd stripped off his jacket to add to Seifer's warmth, and carefully created a windbreak with some of the smaller boulders. His logic had won out against Seifer's arguments, and the brunette had stubbornly set out into the teeth of what had become a fierce gale. Seifer had been sure the brunette was going to his death...
Will you stop reminiscing already. Squall sounded irritated. I'm hungry. Seifer sighed and stood.
It'll only be some fruit. Don't expect a plate of chips or anything. Squall didn't dignify the statement with a response - other than a second mental yawn. Shaking his head, Seifer left the room, closing the door behind him as he left.
As it was, Seifer saw Quistis and Zell in the cafeteria, and managed to kill two birds with one stone by assigning them to the paperwork even as he purchased Squall's soon-to-be-smuggled breakfast. Unfortunately they both wanted an update on Squall's progress, which meant he had to spend over ten minutes convincing them that when he said Squall was fine, he meant Squall was fine.
To add insult to injury, Dr Kadowaki wasn't even present when he returned, so it wouldn't have mattered even if he had brought a plate of chips - or something. To add further insult, Squall wasn't even there. Seifer settled for glaring at the empty bed. He'd always suspected that Squall was possessed of a cruel and unusual sense of humour, and as he stood glaring at the empty bed, a piece of fruit in each hand, feeling a complete idiot, that suspicion was confirmed.
"The Commander checked himself out a couple of minutes ago." Dr Kadowaki struggled to maintain a straight face as Seifer whirled, and then belatedly attempted to hide an apple and an orange behind his back. She raised an eyebrow at his somewhat sickly grin. "I don't mind people bringing fruit." The doctor pointed out, watching as Seifer's expression slid through a range of emotions. Whatever anyone else said, she thought the Ultemecia incident had matured him. That, and perhaps his most recent defeat at Squall's hands had finally knocked some sense into his head. Whichever it was, the brunette seemed to have the former knight shaping up nicely.
Once Seifer paused and thought to feel where Squall was, he realised that the brunette's stomach, apparently empty enough to drag him out of the healing sleep, would have undoubtedly led him in the direction of the cafeteria. Sure enough, the brunette was ensconced in a corner, with Quistis and Zell watching in amazement as the brunette consumed more food than anyone usually saw him eat in an entire year. Seifer grimaced. Losing life-force was a bitch, but fortunately for sorcerers, not permanent. A few meals of the same size as the one he was half-way through, and Squall would be as strong as ever.
"Stop smirking." Seifer grumbled, sitting opposite Squall and taking a bite of the apple he'd carried from the cafeteria to the infirmary, and back. His comment, far from causing the smirking Squall to adopt his normal bland expression, caused the smirk to deepen. Seifer glared. Any second now Quistis or Zell would ask...
"What happened?" It was Zell who asked.
"I think Squall got one over on Seifer." And Quistis who answered. Despite the GFs interference with memory, she still knew them both far too well. Zell chuckled, more than happy to hear that his one-time nemesis had gotten a taste of his own medicine. Fortunately the blond didn't press for details.
So why are you up? Can't have been that hungry surely? Seifer asked, finishing off the apple and starting to peel the orange.
Edea's going to arrive in a couple of hours. She'd walk all over anyone else. Seifer froze, halfway through peeling the orange, and looked up sharply at Squall. The brunette was still eating as though nothing else existed except him and the food, and he was on a mission to eat it all. Quistis and Zell noticed Seifer's sudden pause, and their eyes flicked from him to Squall and back. They seemed to have some idea of what was going on though, and quickly returned to their own conversation.
She's not supposed to get here until tomorrow. Seifer growled, frowning in concentration as he peeled away a particularly stubborn piece of pith.
No. But she hopes to catch us by surprise. I don't think she is aware yet that Rinoa is following her. This time Seifer managed to disguise his falter as a pause to appreciate the first segment of hard-peeled orange.
I wish we knew more about this Kylari - and what she wants. Squall, having finally finished the plate of food, looked up and smiled slightly.
And that's the knowledge that Edea hopes to bargain with.
She wasn't expecting the SeeD escort that met her at the harbour. No one should have known of her arrival in Balamb until she had actually arrived at the Garden, but somehow they had. Either Squall had anticipated her making a move such as this, or she had underestimated the SeeD intelligence network. She could afford to rule out neither possibility. Fortunately Edea could afford to lose the element of surprise, although she was now certain that she would be up against Squall - someone even Adel's fading consciousness had failed to manipulate. Cid had chosen almost too well to make the boy Commander of Garden.
Her welcome into the Garden itself was civil, but subdued. An aura of melancholy still lingered over most, but it was slowly being buried by determination, and a desire for revenge. Squall had matters close to home, at least, firmly under control. But it was a tenuous control, she decided, seeing some groups of students watching her with a dangerous gleam in their eyes. She could feel the mood of the Garden changing as news of her arrival spread. Changing from an outwardly focussed threat, to a very focussed sense of determination to protect their home...from her.
Edea was suddenly very aware of the fact that the SeeDs in her escort were all veterans of the war against Ultemecia. Squall, it seemed, had provided an escort both capable of neutralising threats to her, and of neutralising her should she become a threat. She hid the shiver of uncertainty that crawled down her spine. Squall Leonhart was no longer the child she had known at the orphanage, and no longer the uncertain teenager she had met during the war against Ultemecia. He had matured, grown into the power and responsibilities that came with the position of Commander - and he was dangerous.
Edea was shown into the once-familiar waiting room on the third floor, where her escort left her. It seemed colder than she remembered, emptier somehow, and yet, she didn't think anything had changed. Except that it was no longer her beloved Cid who held sway in the office beyond.
The door opened as that melancholy thought threatened to consume her, revealing Quistis, resplendent in her SeeD dress uniform.
"Matron." She greeted the sorceress, smiling and bowing slightly in welcome. "Please, join us." Edea rose slowly, and walked to the door with measured steps. With each one she wondered whether she would leave the room in the same decorous way.
Cid's...no, Squall's office, was much as she remembered it - with the exception of the elevated platform that was the Garden's helm when mobile. There was no one up there now, but she could hear the wind sighing mournfully around the structure. Clearly Squall had put the Garden on alert, ready to move at a moments notice.
She looked at the other people in the room. Squall was there, of course, and Seifer, whose inclusion surprised her slightly. When she thought about it, however, it made sense. Seifer and Squall were Garden's two best fighters, and Seifer had proven his command abilities during the war against Ultemecia. Thanks to his role then, it was unlikely that he would ever have command of his own Garden, but under Squall's watchful eye he'd apparently been accepted with a minimum of fuss.
Quistis and Zell... Edea suppressed a wry smile. The two had only been married for under a month, and the glow of love between them was still strong. She wondered vaguely if Squall had included them for that very reason, and then reminded herself that he had no way of knowing how emotions appeared to a sorceress's senses - particularly strong emotion. That was another advantage he had unwittingly given her by including so many others. Even if Squall and Seifer were able to shield their emotions from her, Quistis and Zell were a completely different story.
"Please, sit Edea. This isn't an interrogation." Squall's words snapped her out of her contemplative trance. He'd moved around the desk to sit at the far end from Seifer. Edea sat, choosing a seat slightly closer to Squall than Seifer. The blond frowned down the table at the brunette, and Edea suppressed her own smirk. That they sat at opposite ends of the table could have meant they were working together, making it so that she could only face one at a time, but she thought that frown indicated lingering tensions between the two. Quistis and Zell sat next to each other, hands discretely linked beneath the table. They sat on the opposite side to Edea, but like her, slightly closer to Squall. Seifer sneered, and was completely ignored by both.
"You know why I'm here." Edea faced towards Quistis and Zell, but her words were aimed at Squall. The brunette moved his head slightly in a gesture of 'maybe'.
"I could hope that you'd tell us what you know of Kylari without seeking payment of some form. But I know you better." And it seemed he did, Edea realised. Neither Quistis nor Zell was expressing surprise, so they'd clearly been briefed on her intensions beforehand. "And you'll forgive me if I say that Cid's death will not gain you any sympathy." Edea blinked and did a rapid double-take of the emotional situation. Quistis and Zell had suddenly gone still, and were both showing shock and surprise as well as a hint of resignation and grief. Seifer, surprisingly, had slipped enough to be showing faint embarrassment and worry, whilst Squall, unsurprisingly, showed nothing.
"Well." She breathed after a moment to collect her scattered thoughts, and plans. "It seems that my cards are on the table. Perhaps you'd like to tell everyone what 'payment' I want." There was a long pause. Edea turned to look directly at Squall, finding the brunette with the faintest of smiles on his face.
"You want us to help you convince Ellone to go along with some crazy, half-assed, half-baked 'plan' of Adel's. That plan being to slaughter the remaining sorceresses, including yourself, so that Ellone has all their powers." It was Seifer, at the opposite end of the table, who spoke. Silence fell...
Squall stared at the back of Edea's head as though it held all the answers he needed. In a way, it did. But without revealing himself there and then, he had no way to access those answers without first agreeing to pay the piper. The question was, what price?
Ellone was not a sorceress, although she'd somehow been gifted with the ability to look both backwards and forwards in time, and to move the minds of others through time in the same way. It made her extremely dangerous to the world, and extremely valuable to any sorceresses of a mind to try and make themselves invincible by knowing the future. Fortunately, because her powers weren't the powers of a sorceress, if she died, the powers would die with her. Unfortunately, because she was the last living female of the last sorcerer line, if she died, then when Squall died... Hyne alone knew what would happen. His powers might return to wherever they'd come from, or they might explode out of control and wreak untold damage. And if Kylari killed everyone on the planet, and then killed him...
So what did he do? Support Edea's crazy plan and then discover that he'd played right into Kylari's hands. Or refuse to support Edea's crazy plan and remain in the dark about Kylari's motives. Which was the lesser evil? Was there a lesser evil in this situation?
Quistis swung her head sharply to stare at Squall as the brunette closed his eyes. He had to be conversing with one of the GFs - or faking that he was. She and Zell were playing this all by ear, although some things Squall had warned them about - such as Edea's plans and her new-found attitude. Others he hadn't warned them about, and neither had Seifer. Cid's death though, was still somehow abstracted from reality in her thoughts. That was probably aided by the lack of detail.
"Why is Rinoa Heartilly following you, Sorceress Kramer?" Squall's voice and expression had sharpened, hardened. The words weren't even addressed to her, and Quistis still found herself swallowing at the dangerous edge to the brunette's tone. At the other end of the table, Seifer had frozen, tense and wary, waiting for the situation to resolve itself as an occasion for fighting, fleeing, or doing nothing.
Edea's head whipped around, leaving the dangling ornaments of her headdress swaying violently. Her eyes had widened in shock.
"What...? How do you...?" Squall's glare intensified as he began to frown.
"We have GFs keeping watch. That and, whatever she is now, she's still lousy at stealth. Now answer the question." Seifer's cold words were accompanied by a glare that was anything but cold.
"I don't know." Edea managed to answer defiantly, although Zell caught a faint tremor in her words. He didn't blame her. He was - or so he hoped - not caught between two extremely dangerous fighters who had just decided he might be a threat. His own heart was racing, and he could feel Quistis' pulse also doing overtime where their hands were entwined. He could only imagine what Edea's heart was doing. "I wasn't aware that I was being followed." The excuses sounded lame, contrived out of desperation on the spur of the moment. It didn't matter that they were probably true, they sounded false.
"And why come here in person?" That was Quistis getting in on the act - unprompted, unless you counted the discussion they'd had before Edea's arrival. "This conversation could easily have been carried out over a secure line." But Edea would have been at a disadvantage in a video conference, unable to see the emotional auras of those she was talking to. Not that it was helping much at the moment.
"Adel tried to warn me." Edea admitted ruefully, admitting defeat to Squall as she did so. Everyone relaxed marginally, although they remained wary. "Kylari's origins are...complex. What do you know of the nature of time, and time magic?"
"If an alteration in the past is made, it cascades into the future, hence the danger of killing an ancestor and creating a paradox where you don't exist, but if you didn't exist you wouldn't have killed your ancestor and so you would exist..." Zell trailed off, looking slightly glassy-eyed. Quistis patted his hand reassuringly.
"Yes. To an extent. What about you Quistis?" The blonde shrugged.
"Time is circular. Eventually everything ends and begins again. History repeats itself." Aside from the circular nature of a paradox, Quistis' view seemed to contradict Zell's. Edea only nodded.
"And you, Seifer?" The blond frowned in thought for a moment.
"Whatever whoever's right said." Edea chuckled slightly.
"A good answer. Squall?" The brunette contemplated her for a moment.
"Time is the fourth dimension. It exists in the other three, and so you can move in time. In changing the past you simply move sideways through time, creating a parallel universe. Everything happens somewhere, but some things happen everywhere - such as Ultemecia, time compression, and her defeat." Even Edea stared at him in surprise. Squall took her sudden reappraisal of him in his stride. He shrugged. "I never told Adel all my suspicions."
And Adel had never even known, Edea thought, still slightly stunned. Oh, it was possible to figure out the bit with time being another dimension, and the existence of parallel universes, simply through the application of common sense and a few questions in the right places. But to realise that there were key events that pinned all those parallel universes together, and to recognise not only one but three...
"Well, in a sense you're all right. Time is the fourth dimension, parallel universes and key events exist, but time is also circular, and alterations in the past do filter through to the...a future." She took a deep breath. If they thought that was hard to understand... "When you defeated Ultemecia it was in time compression - you have, are, and will defeat her at every possible moment for at least seventy years before and after the point in time when she actually existed. She no longer exists in this universe..."
"Hold on - I thought we were discussing Kylari's motives here, not Ultemecia's defeat?" Zell nodded agreement to Seifer's question before he could stop himself.
"But Ultemecia and time compression are inextricably linked with Kylari and her motives." Edea responded, hurriedly trying to assemble her thoughts in the brief pause. "You see, some fifty or so years ago, there was a sorceress called Adel, and she was dying..."
FLASHBACK START
Adel, beloved ruler of Esthar, was dying. Everyone knew it, and almost everyone was sorrowful. For the most part they appreciated their luck in having such a ruler, she was harsh, but just, and she had protected them from the outside world for almost forty years. But now she was dying, slowly, and the search for a successor had begun. It was not, however, going well, and the people feared for their leader.
They feared with justification, for no suitable successor was found, and Adel would not relinquish either her country or her powers to someone she felt was unsuitable.
But if the search for a suitable candidate was barely progressing at all, the search for a rogue sorceress out towards Centra was having much more...not luck, not fortune, but they were getting closer. A second village had been annihilated, and Edea, her knight and a squad of militia had reported that they were following a clear trail from the ashes that remained.
FLASHBACK END
"We cornered Askylarian on one of the Centra peninsulas - near one of the gates to Ultemecia's castle, although we didn't know that then. She was insane...incurably so."
"So you killed her." Seifer voiced the thought that entered everyone's minds. Edea nodded.
"At the time we had no other options for dealing with sorceresses who posed a threat. Adel might have been able to do something, but she was occupied with her search for a successor."
"Wait a minute." Quistis was frowning. "Isn't there a bit of time difference here? I mean, Adel can't have been searching for Ellone fifty years ago. Ellone wasn't even born then." Edea smiled gently.
"I never said Adel was searching for Ellone. Adel failed to find a successor she felt capable of ruling in her stead, so she had Odine's predecessor concoct some sort of drug to slow the disease eating away at her. Unfortunately it had some side effects, changing her appearance, and also affecting her judgement. She became paranoid, and I left for Centra, where she would not feel that I was a threat. That was why she put everything into finding Ellone later, and also why the people supported Laguna's sealing of Adel when he made it clear he would not allow Ellone to become a sorceress."
"Alright. So you killed this Askylarian, but what does that have to do with Kylari?" Zell prompted. Edea sighed. She was reasonably certain that Squall, if not Seifer, had realised where she was going, and the connection between Askylarian and Kylari, and it was those two whom she sought to convince of her intentions.
"We thought, Adel and I, that Askylarian was dead, her powers safely passed to another girl, Amara. But now I believe that Askylarian's consciousness escaped through some fragment of time compression into the future."
"Oh! So we're really fighting Askylarian - she's just calling herself Kylari now, huh?" Zell leapt in.
"Shut up Chickenwuss." Seifer growled. "I think there's more to it than that." Edea nodded.
"Askylarian's consciousness has been passed along with the powers to each successive inheritor. Normally that wouldn't be a problem. Some fragments of the previous sorceress' consciousness pass along in the normal course of events, but fade away over time. Askylarian's consciousness, however, has not. What's more, it's been passed from host to host, probably accumulating more personalities as it's gone."
"And Ultemecia is one of them." Edea nodded at Squall's statement.
"Yes. It was undoubtedly the same powers that Ultemecia was using."
"But we defeated Ultemecia..." Zell's forehead creased in a frown as he tried to get his mind around everything.
"Since Kylari is still very much active, I think it can be assumed she escaped through time compression again. And presumably to some point before time compression, otherwise she would be caught within that loop."
Squall listened as Edea carefully explained to Zell how time compression had become a sealed loop in time, and that, whilst everyone remembered it, in theory it hadn't even happened in their timeline. A sideways slip through time... And a sorceress who'd bound herself to her powers, and who happened to hold a grudge against a good number of people who were now dead. No wonder Kylari was desperate to get hold of the last sorcerer's powers. She had a score to settle, and the only way she could settle it was to make the dead live once more - just so she could kill them, over and over again, as she had been 'killed' over and over again. And that was just Kylari's grudge. The influence and motives of the personalities she'd collected over time were likely to remain a mystery until the end.
But none of that helped him in his decision.
It was certain that Kylari would be seeking to destroy or capture any relations he might have, just as the Kenthra and Centra would be seeking to destroy anyone with possible links to the last sorcerer. Whether they knew who that was, or whether Kylari had yet to tell them, he didn't know. Just as he didn't know whether Kylari knew that Ellone was his half sister. Because there was a horrible and distinct possibility that, should she learn of how the sorcerer powers were passed on, and that Ellone was the last female of the line, Kylari would decide to breed her own sorcerers. That way she could use their ability to bring the dead back to the land of the living with relative impunity. She wouldn't have to worry about them using up their own life-force and dying, because she could just breed another one.
No. He would not let his half-sister face that fate. Better that she were dead, better that the world be destroyed, than that happen. Because he would have failed his duty to prevent the barrier between the worlds of the dead and living from being broken with impunity.
Either way she would become a clear target for Kylari, whether as his half-sister up in the hard, but not impossible, to reach space station, or as a powerful sorceress on the planet.
He made his decision.
AN: uber long chapter, gomen minna o.O hehehe, so, what has Squall decided? And yes, before people beat me up over being nasty to Edea, I do feel sorry for her. Anyone who's read Katherine Kerr's 'Deverry' series of books will notice the similarity between Edea's situation and the Old One's situation. They're both missing that single vital piece of information that'll make everything fall into place...
