A/N: I'm sorry this has taken so long to get out, but I'm afraid that from now on the gaps between the chapters will be longer, because I'm entering the DREADED GCSE YEARS scary music. Aaaaaaaaaah! Well, I'm pretty pleased with this chapter, but any feedback would be great. Any at all. Go on, you know you want to give me comments!

"Whenever I sang my songs

On this stage, on my own

Whenever I said my words

Wishing they would be heard

I saw you smiling at me."

Eyes On Me, Nobuo Uematsu

Kuja approached the third tree slowly. He didn't want to see it. But he had to. He had to work out who they were, the two strangers appearing in Kuja's mind. His boots clacked on the flagstones and the sound echoed around him, distorted by his mind. He pulled on the branch, and the images came up in front of him. However, it was not what he had expected.

He was at a party. He walked through a room grander than anything he had ever seen before. Pearls hung from the chandeliers and the men in black suits offered the guests flutes of a golden liquid, something strange and fizzy which he didn't know at the time, but he now recognised as champagne. People stood in various groups, chatting about international politics and these sorts of things that Kuja had researched for years at the Daguerreo library. A woman, who was obviously the hostess, flitted from group to group, smiling and waving her arms. Kuja's upper lip curled. It was difficult to tell if she was a woman or not. Her grand dress and jewelry didn't hide her size, or her elephant- like appearance. However, Kuja was interested in something different. On the stage stood a small girl, no older than eight, with her soft brown hair cut into an inelegant bob. She was singing to the tune of a perfectly polished black grand piano. Her dress and headgear spoke of a life of wealth and power. Her voice was sweet, but she was obviously bored with her song. As the last note died away, she curtseyed and stepped down from the stage. Kuja approached the little girl and bent down so they were at eye level. "What's your name, miss?" he asked softly.

The girl sighed and turned to face him. "My name is Princess Garnet Til Alexandros, sir. I am pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Are you enjoying yourself, Princess?" said Kuja, who, despite his long time of study, wasn't sure how to address this little girl, who was at less than half his age, yet spoke with so much intelligence and power.

"I am having a delightful time, thank you, sir. I find these people quite… fascinating." said Garnet. Unfortunately, her eloquence didn't hide the fact that she was lying through her teeth. That made two of them, then.

"Shall we go out to the balcony? There are not as many people there."

"Yes, let's."

Garnet followed Kuja out to the expansive balcony, where the sky, although dominated by the twin moons, was dotted with stars. Kuja watched the child carefully. As soon as she came onto the balcony, her head lifted too see the sky, and her eyes became round and shiny with wonder.

"I have looked forward to meeting you for a long time, Princess."

"Really?"

Kuja could see she wasn't listening. "Do you know the story of the twin moons, Your Highness?" he said, sitting down on a bench.

"No, I… don't believe I do." Garnet sat beside him.

"Well, like all good stories, this one takes place many years ago, before anyone living today was born. There was an Alexandrian diplomat who had two wonderful children, a pair of twins called Selene and Thoth. They loved each other dearly.

When Selene and Thoth were alive, there was a war going on between Alexandria and Lindblum. Although their father forbade it, they often slipped out of the city together to watch the battles. They swore to each other that one day, they too would fight for Alexandria. However, on the night of the Battle Of The Lune, the most important battle of the war, their father found out about his children's secret visits, and, in a rage, he locked them inside the house and left for a meeting. Nevertheless, the children's love for each other and their homeland was so great that they managed to break out of the house and escape to a nearby hill, where they watched the battle unseen. The Alexandrian soldiers were losing, and, to the children's horror, the Alexandrian captain fell from his steed. In that moment, in the midst of the blood and the death, divinity touched the children, and they understood everything in the world and saw everything in the world. They rushed to the captain's side and pulled him from the path of a stampeding horse. Thoth raised his knife and slit his own throat, and the blood poured into the captain and replaced all the blood he had already lost. Selene wept, and her tears fell onto the captain's wounds and healed them, and he leapt up, refreshed and ready to fight again. Selene, still weeping her healing tears, saw that Thoth was dying. She couldn't bear to be parted from him, so she too slit open her throat and their blood poured out onto the grass and they rose up into the sky. And there they are watching over us today."

Garnet gazed at the twin moons with amazement shining in her wide innocent eyes. "Which one is which?"

"Selene is the blue moon, and Thoth is the red moon." Kuja said, pointing at the moons in turn. It seemed that the princess had swallowed the story. It wasn't hard to fool an eight- year- old, after all. "Your voice is quite something, Princess."

"Thank you very much. I have practised every day since I was little."

"You sound like a canary. Do you know what a canary is?"

"No, I don't believe I do."

"They are little yellow birds, no bigger than my hand, that live around Cleyra. They are famous for their sweet voices."

"I should like to hear a canary."

"One day, I will bring you one, Your Highness."

"Are you a traveller, then?"

"Of sorts, yes, though I plan to stay in Alexandria for a while."

Garnet's face fell. "Then I will not be able to see a canary."

Kuja turned to her and held her hand. "I will bring you a canary soon, Your Highness. I swear it."

Garnet smiled for the first time. "Where do you come from, sir?"

"A long way away, Princess."

"Then you are not Alexandrian."

"No, although I find your culture fascinating. I hope to meet the Queen."

"You certainly have high ambitions. How did you come here? Who invited you?"

"Oh… the Burmecian ambassador."

"I see. Well, sir, it has been a pleasure meeting you, but I really must retire to my bed. Thank you for the story, and I do hope to see a canary soon."

"Good night, Princess."

"Good night."

Garnet got up and walked back into the party. Kuja watched her out of the corner of his eye. She said something to her mother, the elephant- lady, and left the room. Kuja got up and followed her at a distance, being careful not to make a sound on the stone floor, until she entered what was obviously her bedroom. Kuja rejoined the party for a few hours, making polite chatter and entertaining the guests with his dry sense of humour, until he judged the time was right.

No- one noticed Kuja slip off out of the party area. No- one noticed him follow the Princess' trail. No- one noticed him turn the doorknob slowly, ever so slowly, until the door swung open before him. Kuja entered the Princess' bedroom unseen. He saw the window was open, and walked across to it. A flock of doves flitted by in the night. Being careful not to wake the sleeping girl, Kuja shut the windows, pulling in the delicate pink curtains. Then he pulled a chair towards the bed, sat down, and watched the Princess sleep.