Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue.
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Chapter 2: Disception
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"Vivi? Are you okay?" Freya asked.
"Hm?" the mage grunted, but then examined himself. "Yeah, I s'ppose."
"What happened back there?" the Burmecian asked as Eiko and Vivi's sons ran up, the black mages were all out of breath.
"I-I don't know....I just suddenly felt really tired...and then I guess I just fell asleep." Vivi shrugged, but Freya knew he had not merely went to sleep. Freya had known about the black mage's limited life span, Vivi's included. The Burmecian shook her head. Had Vivi just cheated death? But how? Perhaps it had something to do with that arrogant teenager...
"What's wrong Freya?"
"Hm? Oh, n-nothing," Freya said. "How are you feeling now?"
"Better," Vivi said with his usual childish grin. "J-just a bit hungry, when's dinner?"
Freya laughed and ruffled Vivi's hair beneath his hat.
"What'd I miss?" Eiko panted.
"Vivi's fine," Freya called.
"Dad!" Sprite said and flung himself at his father, embracing Vivi fondly.
"I'm glad to see you too," Vivi chuckled and lifted Sprite into his arms. He stood up and looked around the group.
"Perhaps we should head to the castle anyways," Freya suggested. "It's getting late and the airship will be leaving soon."
"Yeah," Eiko agreed. "Man, this year's play is gonna be so much fun!"
"Blank and Ruby have the lead roles this year?" Vivi asked as they began walking toward the castle.
"Yup!" Eiko replied.
"At least that's what I've heard." Freya chimed in. Vivi's six sons followed quietly, not knowing anything about this play besides the small stories their father had told them.
"Amarant's coming, right?" Vivi said hopefully.
"Yes, he wrote me and said he would," Freya said. She and Amarant still kept in touch, mostly to remind each other of money and items they owed one another. Vivi sighed blissfully, feeling unusually energetic. He decided to mess with Eiko a little bit, an uncharactistic descision going against his normal collected nature.
"I don't know if I wanna go..." Vivi sighed, looking up to the sky.
"What, you have to!" Eiko snapped.
"B-But we can go, right?" Jet asked.
"Nah, come on. If we hurry up, we'll be able to get home before dark," Vivi said, a mischievious glint in his eye.
"What!? But..." Quan started but was cut off by Sparrow.
"You promised we could go!" his brother interjected.
"You promised YOU would go!" Eiko added.
"...." Vivi was struggling to stiffle his laughter.
"Dad...." Sprite whimpered, tugging on Vivi's waistcoat.
The mage sighed a chuckle.
"Okay, I'm kidding. We're going, don't worry." Vivi assured.
"Good." Eiko huffed, giving Vivi a slight push. The mage chuckled and returned the shoved playfully. "Hey! That's not very nice."
"Neither was you shoving me," Vivi retorted.
"Hmph," Eiko grumbled, walking ahead of the group.
Vivi shrugged, perplexed as ever on Eiko's reasoning. He slowed down his pace to match his sons'. They were all close as brothers should be, sometimes Vivi acted more like one of their siblings than a father.
"So is the play good?" Almanac asked.
Vivi nodded.
"Are there any fights?" Jet-Jet implored, pretending to hold and swing a sword.
"Oh plenty," Vivi replied.
Jet rubbed his hands together. "Cool!"
They proceeded into the castle's indoor airship docks, the inside of the castle always seemed cold and smelled like motor oil. But it was still Eiko's home, so they treated it as such.
"Mom! Dad!" Eiko said as soon as she caught sight of Hilda and Cid. She charged and leapt into their arms, giggling.
"Are you excited for the play dear?" Hilda asked.
Eiko nodded and looked to Vivi and Freya.
"They adopted me! Cid and Hilda are my parents!" she proclaimed, mostly to Freya.
"I see." the Burmecian said. "Well, how long until the airship leaves for Alexandria?"
"Um....they were having some engine troubles..." Cid said.
"But they'll be ready soon. About a twenty minute delay," Hilda assured.
"I see," Freya murmured. "Well, I haven't been here in awhile. May I have a look around?"
"Of course." Cid nodded. "Your friend Amarant is here as well. He's here with a couple young ladies, so I don't know if it'd be good to disturb them..."
"We can see him on the airship," Eiko shrugged. "Come on Vivi! I wanna show you my room!"
Vivi made a small whimper when Eiko grabbed him by the shoulder, nearly dragging him up the stairs to her new room, leaving his sons by themselves with Cid and Hilda.
"Here, would you boys like to have a look around?" Hilda offered.
"No thanks!" Sprite squeaked, surprisingly being the first to speak.
"Yeah."
"Ditto."
"We just wanna look at the airships," Sparrow informed.
"Alright, try not to get into too much trouble," Hilda said with a smile as her, Freya and Cid began walking off. The six mages dispersed, each finding something different to amuse himself. Sprite, a dangerously curious little mage wandered across the platform, catching sight of Amarant, who he was very fond of. The small mage wandered away from his brothers, unnoticed. Sprite was about to greet the towering warrior, but the presence of two others somewhat discouraged him, so the small mage merely watched and listened.
His first companion was a tall, bronze skinned female with short red hair. A broad axe was slung across her bare shoulder. The girl was hardly wearing anything, unlike Amarant's other companion. She was covered head to monkey-like tail in thick brown robes. She seemed to be doing most of the talking within the group.
"Alright, so you two will capture and bring him to my home?" she said.
"Lenore," the red haired girl said, shaking her head. "Lenore, Lenore, Lenore. I think you can trust us more than that."
"Well, you failed your last mission from Queen Brahne when it came to him Lani," Lenore replied, her razor sharp voice was somewhat aggitated.
"Erm..." Lani said, somewhat humbled.
"Yeah, don't worry. He trusts me. I don't know why but he does." Amarant chuckled, crossing his arms. "We'll trick him onto the wrong airship, knock him out and bring him to your place."
"Excellent," Lenore grinned. "Thank you again. I will reward you two handsomely, given that he comes to me COMPLETELY uninjured."
"Why does it matter if we..." Lani started, rubbing her axe's handle. "Rough him up a bit?"
"I don't even see why you want him. Vivi's a total wuss." Amarant grumbled.
Sprite choked back a gasp. What did they want with his father?
"No, I need him unscathed in order for my little experiment to work," she replied.
"What exactly are you going to do?" Amarant asked, beginning to feel somewhat uncomfortable on his idea of where this girl was heading.
"I've always wanted a pet, and I was rather fond of father's experiments with the black waltzes," Lenore said with a smile.
"Hmph, your money," Amarant shrugged.
"I shall be going now." Lenore said, turning around. "You know the place. Please take care not to hurt him and try not to have him use any magic. He is carrying the same power as a black waltz, but he has no control over it yet. Plus, the spell I put on him earlier to extend his life to a regular 'human's' will wear off in a few days, sooner if he uses any magic."
"Well what's the point of it then?" Lani asked, Lenore's disjointed commands making no sense to her.
"As long as you get him to my home as soon as possible, I'll be able to make the spell permanent." she grinned. "Including the physical adjustments. Even now I'm sure he's beginning to ache for the sky."
Sprite was horrified. They were going to take Vivi and do lord knows what to him! The small mage scuttled off as quickly as possible, luckily not drawing any attention to himself. He called out to his brothers.
"You guys! You guys!" he squeaked, grabbing the attention of his brothers. "Amawant's gonna take dad away!"
"What?" Almanac said.
"Nah, Amarant's on our side." Sparrow explained.
"No! He was tawking to a cweepy wady an-and...she said something about kidnapping dad and something a bwack wawtz..." Sprite said.
"Black waltz?" Jet pondered. "Nah, dad said they beat 'em before. They're gone Sprite."
"B-but!" Sprite said, but Quan put a finger over his lips.
"Calm down Sprite, you're gonna hurt yourself," Quan said with a heavy breath. Just then, the rest of the group walked up.
"The mechanic says we're ready to depart!" Cid announced, getting on board the Hilda Garde IV. Vivi's sons quickly followed Hilda and Eiko, brought up by Freya. Vivi was the last to begin walking toward the airship when Amarant grabbed him by the shoulder.
"Hey Vivi," he greeted. "There's another airship heading to Alexandria that I'm taking. Wanna join?"
Vivi scratched his head.
"S-sure!" the mage said with a nod. Sprite watched from onboard the Hilda Garde IV as Vivi began following Amarant to another airship.
"Dad!" Sprite cried insecurely. Vivi looked up.
"Don't worry! I'll meet you at Alexandria!" Vivi assured and continued following Amarant.
"Dad..." Sprite whimpered and sat down on the deck as the motors began to hum, ready to take off into the night sky.
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"So why are you going on a different airship?" Vivi asked as he took a seat on the deck of the run down, rickety old vessel.
Amarant didn't answer, standing dangerously close to Vivi. He raised his hand and pinched Vivi's shoulder, causing the mage to instantly go limp in a sleeper hold. Amarant chuckled.
"Easiest 50,000 gil I've ever made," Amarant said aloud as their airship began to peel away from the Hilda Garde IV, turning in the opposite direction, heading toward the Outter Continent.
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Chapter 2: Disception
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"Vivi? Are you okay?" Freya asked.
"Hm?" the mage grunted, but then examined himself. "Yeah, I s'ppose."
"What happened back there?" the Burmecian asked as Eiko and Vivi's sons ran up, the black mages were all out of breath.
"I-I don't know....I just suddenly felt really tired...and then I guess I just fell asleep." Vivi shrugged, but Freya knew he had not merely went to sleep. Freya had known about the black mage's limited life span, Vivi's included. The Burmecian shook her head. Had Vivi just cheated death? But how? Perhaps it had something to do with that arrogant teenager...
"What's wrong Freya?"
"Hm? Oh, n-nothing," Freya said. "How are you feeling now?"
"Better," Vivi said with his usual childish grin. "J-just a bit hungry, when's dinner?"
Freya laughed and ruffled Vivi's hair beneath his hat.
"What'd I miss?" Eiko panted.
"Vivi's fine," Freya called.
"Dad!" Sprite said and flung himself at his father, embracing Vivi fondly.
"I'm glad to see you too," Vivi chuckled and lifted Sprite into his arms. He stood up and looked around the group.
"Perhaps we should head to the castle anyways," Freya suggested. "It's getting late and the airship will be leaving soon."
"Yeah," Eiko agreed. "Man, this year's play is gonna be so much fun!"
"Blank and Ruby have the lead roles this year?" Vivi asked as they began walking toward the castle.
"Yup!" Eiko replied.
"At least that's what I've heard." Freya chimed in. Vivi's six sons followed quietly, not knowing anything about this play besides the small stories their father had told them.
"Amarant's coming, right?" Vivi said hopefully.
"Yes, he wrote me and said he would," Freya said. She and Amarant still kept in touch, mostly to remind each other of money and items they owed one another. Vivi sighed blissfully, feeling unusually energetic. He decided to mess with Eiko a little bit, an uncharactistic descision going against his normal collected nature.
"I don't know if I wanna go..." Vivi sighed, looking up to the sky.
"What, you have to!" Eiko snapped.
"B-But we can go, right?" Jet asked.
"Nah, come on. If we hurry up, we'll be able to get home before dark," Vivi said, a mischievious glint in his eye.
"What!? But..." Quan started but was cut off by Sparrow.
"You promised we could go!" his brother interjected.
"You promised YOU would go!" Eiko added.
"...." Vivi was struggling to stiffle his laughter.
"Dad...." Sprite whimpered, tugging on Vivi's waistcoat.
The mage sighed a chuckle.
"Okay, I'm kidding. We're going, don't worry." Vivi assured.
"Good." Eiko huffed, giving Vivi a slight push. The mage chuckled and returned the shoved playfully. "Hey! That's not very nice."
"Neither was you shoving me," Vivi retorted.
"Hmph," Eiko grumbled, walking ahead of the group.
Vivi shrugged, perplexed as ever on Eiko's reasoning. He slowed down his pace to match his sons'. They were all close as brothers should be, sometimes Vivi acted more like one of their siblings than a father.
"So is the play good?" Almanac asked.
Vivi nodded.
"Are there any fights?" Jet-Jet implored, pretending to hold and swing a sword.
"Oh plenty," Vivi replied.
Jet rubbed his hands together. "Cool!"
They proceeded into the castle's indoor airship docks, the inside of the castle always seemed cold and smelled like motor oil. But it was still Eiko's home, so they treated it as such.
"Mom! Dad!" Eiko said as soon as she caught sight of Hilda and Cid. She charged and leapt into their arms, giggling.
"Are you excited for the play dear?" Hilda asked.
Eiko nodded and looked to Vivi and Freya.
"They adopted me! Cid and Hilda are my parents!" she proclaimed, mostly to Freya.
"I see." the Burmecian said. "Well, how long until the airship leaves for Alexandria?"
"Um....they were having some engine troubles..." Cid said.
"But they'll be ready soon. About a twenty minute delay," Hilda assured.
"I see," Freya murmured. "Well, I haven't been here in awhile. May I have a look around?"
"Of course." Cid nodded. "Your friend Amarant is here as well. He's here with a couple young ladies, so I don't know if it'd be good to disturb them..."
"We can see him on the airship," Eiko shrugged. "Come on Vivi! I wanna show you my room!"
Vivi made a small whimper when Eiko grabbed him by the shoulder, nearly dragging him up the stairs to her new room, leaving his sons by themselves with Cid and Hilda.
"Here, would you boys like to have a look around?" Hilda offered.
"No thanks!" Sprite squeaked, surprisingly being the first to speak.
"Yeah."
"Ditto."
"We just wanna look at the airships," Sparrow informed.
"Alright, try not to get into too much trouble," Hilda said with a smile as her, Freya and Cid began walking off. The six mages dispersed, each finding something different to amuse himself. Sprite, a dangerously curious little mage wandered across the platform, catching sight of Amarant, who he was very fond of. The small mage wandered away from his brothers, unnoticed. Sprite was about to greet the towering warrior, but the presence of two others somewhat discouraged him, so the small mage merely watched and listened.
His first companion was a tall, bronze skinned female with short red hair. A broad axe was slung across her bare shoulder. The girl was hardly wearing anything, unlike Amarant's other companion. She was covered head to monkey-like tail in thick brown robes. She seemed to be doing most of the talking within the group.
"Alright, so you two will capture and bring him to my home?" she said.
"Lenore," the red haired girl said, shaking her head. "Lenore, Lenore, Lenore. I think you can trust us more than that."
"Well, you failed your last mission from Queen Brahne when it came to him Lani," Lenore replied, her razor sharp voice was somewhat aggitated.
"Erm..." Lani said, somewhat humbled.
"Yeah, don't worry. He trusts me. I don't know why but he does." Amarant chuckled, crossing his arms. "We'll trick him onto the wrong airship, knock him out and bring him to your place."
"Excellent," Lenore grinned. "Thank you again. I will reward you two handsomely, given that he comes to me COMPLETELY uninjured."
"Why does it matter if we..." Lani started, rubbing her axe's handle. "Rough him up a bit?"
"I don't even see why you want him. Vivi's a total wuss." Amarant grumbled.
Sprite choked back a gasp. What did they want with his father?
"No, I need him unscathed in order for my little experiment to work," she replied.
"What exactly are you going to do?" Amarant asked, beginning to feel somewhat uncomfortable on his idea of where this girl was heading.
"I've always wanted a pet, and I was rather fond of father's experiments with the black waltzes," Lenore said with a smile.
"Hmph, your money," Amarant shrugged.
"I shall be going now." Lenore said, turning around. "You know the place. Please take care not to hurt him and try not to have him use any magic. He is carrying the same power as a black waltz, but he has no control over it yet. Plus, the spell I put on him earlier to extend his life to a regular 'human's' will wear off in a few days, sooner if he uses any magic."
"Well what's the point of it then?" Lani asked, Lenore's disjointed commands making no sense to her.
"As long as you get him to my home as soon as possible, I'll be able to make the spell permanent." she grinned. "Including the physical adjustments. Even now I'm sure he's beginning to ache for the sky."
Sprite was horrified. They were going to take Vivi and do lord knows what to him! The small mage scuttled off as quickly as possible, luckily not drawing any attention to himself. He called out to his brothers.
"You guys! You guys!" he squeaked, grabbing the attention of his brothers. "Amawant's gonna take dad away!"
"What?" Almanac said.
"Nah, Amarant's on our side." Sparrow explained.
"No! He was tawking to a cweepy wady an-and...she said something about kidnapping dad and something a bwack wawtz..." Sprite said.
"Black waltz?" Jet pondered. "Nah, dad said they beat 'em before. They're gone Sprite."
"B-but!" Sprite said, but Quan put a finger over his lips.
"Calm down Sprite, you're gonna hurt yourself," Quan said with a heavy breath. Just then, the rest of the group walked up.
"The mechanic says we're ready to depart!" Cid announced, getting on board the Hilda Garde IV. Vivi's sons quickly followed Hilda and Eiko, brought up by Freya. Vivi was the last to begin walking toward the airship when Amarant grabbed him by the shoulder.
"Hey Vivi," he greeted. "There's another airship heading to Alexandria that I'm taking. Wanna join?"
Vivi scratched his head.
"S-sure!" the mage said with a nod. Sprite watched from onboard the Hilda Garde IV as Vivi began following Amarant to another airship.
"Dad!" Sprite cried insecurely. Vivi looked up.
"Don't worry! I'll meet you at Alexandria!" Vivi assured and continued following Amarant.
"Dad..." Sprite whimpered and sat down on the deck as the motors began to hum, ready to take off into the night sky.
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"So why are you going on a different airship?" Vivi asked as he took a seat on the deck of the run down, rickety old vessel.
Amarant didn't answer, standing dangerously close to Vivi. He raised his hand and pinched Vivi's shoulder, causing the mage to instantly go limp in a sleeper hold. Amarant chuckled.
"Easiest 50,000 gil I've ever made," Amarant said aloud as their airship began to peel away from the Hilda Garde IV, turning in the opposite direction, heading toward the Outter Continent.
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