Hide nor hair of Hyne is in evidence, all evidence pointing to his great disappearance. But his shadow is everywhere, falling on the world like dark clouds on the rain. When Hyne stood with the humans he was not human; nor were his tools the humans' tools, nor were his garments those of men. What beasts did he hunt, striding across inhuman plains?

There is a queen of all these beasts--Aedenn or Elysium, the sum of the pure and wondrous. And there is a king, dark and dire as nights without stars, and he walks from grave to grave on the coldest of days. They knew him in days past recounting. Some called him Samsara, some Purgatos, and some looked so far as to name him Hell.

We have always had a softer name for this most fated of kings, the proud one who roars his sorrow. He is Greyfur, Grimfur, Grinbatan.

-

It was with mixed anticipation that Quistis decided to confront Odine--with the full knowledge that getting him to sit still for more than three minutes at a time would be hard enough, and getting any coherent answers out of him would be immeasurably harder. Still, she had requisitioned a stack of materials that didn't seem to make any sense at all, and she was resolved to get some kind of answers out of someone before the day was out.

It came as a bit of a shock when she stepped through the door into his office, papers in hand and a stern look fixed firmly upon her face, only to see the diminutive scientist in what appeared to be a fast-paced argument of some sort with Seifer.

Both of them paused when she came in--Seifer rather more quickly than Odine, who gibbered on for a few more sentences before trailing off. Quistis smiled and nodded pleasantly.

"Hearing voices, Seifer?"

Seifer wore a look that said, plain as the scar on his face, how the hell did you know?!

Quistis sighed. "It looks like this problem is somewhat more widespread than I had thought it would be."

"Yeah, well, if you know what's going on, you can tell it to leave me out of it," Seifer snapped back. "This isn't my problem, and if it is, it shouldn't be!"

"Zis iz clearly an indication of ze persistence of Time Compression," Odine said--then, motioning to Seifer, continued "Zis one cannot remember vat ze voices zaid. Perhaps you vill be able to?"

"I can't remember exactly," Quistis admitted, "but it seemed to recognize me. Seemed to have expected me to come into contact with it. And it threatened me--it said 'we will have you,' or something to that effect."

Odine waved a hand imperiously. "From now on,' he instructed, "I vould like you to write down precizely everything zese voices zay. It vill be of great interest to zee vat time period zese voices contact you from."

"What--" Seifer shook his head. "What do you mean, what time period? Isn't it pretty obvious--"

"Time Compression iz not localized in any von time period," Odine explained irately, with the air of resenting having to explain such a fundamental concept. "Zis dizturbance could originate from any time or times. Zis iz uncertain."

Seifer was opening his mouth to snap something back when Zell came barreling into the room, face flushed, an urgent look hanging about him. Seifer rolled his eyes. "Oh, like this is goign to be good," he muttered.

"Man!" Zell burst. "I'm hearing people talking to me and after this whole thing with the Tears Point thing I'm kinda worried and if the universe is going to end again I kinda wanna know so I can stop it, or something!"

Quistis stifled a chuckle, turning it into a rather awkward cough as she hid her mouth behind one hand. Trust Zell to find such a way to put it.

Odine rubbed his hands together. "Vat did it zay? Vell?"

Zell scratched the back of his neck. "Er... something about... as Sorceress. I think."

Odine nodded. "Precizely vat did it zay?"

Zell shrugged. "Exactly, I dunno, but--"

"From now on, vright it down," Odine admonished sternly.

"--but Selphie said something about hearing voices too, talking about time."

"Time Compression?" Odine prodded.

"She didn't say so," Zell said. "Just time."

"You must have her vrite a record of vat vas zaid and bring it to me at vonce," Odine snapped. "Go! Go!"

Zell nodded, and ran off at such a speed that Quistis was surprised the door managed to open before he ran into it. Quistis blinked.

"I doubt she'll be able to give us much information," she said.

"Any information iz good information!" Odine snapped, and hurried out of the room on some spontaneous business of his own.

Quistis glanced at Seifer. "I must admit, I'm rather surprised to see you here," she said.

"Because Hyne knows I wouldn't want to figure this out," Seifer snapped.

"I meant--"

"I know what you meant." Seifer glanced toward the door. "I'm kinda surprised Squall hasn't shown up," he snorted. "He's hardly one to be left out of all manner of bizarre supernatural affairs."

Quistis sighed, massaging her temples. "He'll be around in about an hour after he's gone through all the available evidence, consulted every related article on the hardwire, and formed three hypotheses of his own," she said with absolute certainty. "And Rinoa will probably take her cues from him, if she's also involved."

"And why shouldn't she be?" Seifer rolled his eyes. "What is it with you people and improbable circumstances?"

Quistis sighed. "Bad luck, I suppose."

Seifer snorted. "Well, if you could stop rubbing it off on me, that's be nice," he snapped.

Quistis sighed again. "...it's not intentional, I'm sure. I suppose this means we'll need you around to see what's happening, though...."

Seifer was staring, incredulous and rather put off. Quistis almost winced.

"Fine," he snarled, "if you have to have me around. I'll do what I'm paid to do. But I really don't think this should be any of my business.

He started to storm away, and she caught him with a gentle hand on his shoulder--he spun, catching her wrist.

For a moment, they were staring directly into each others' eyes. Seifer had an angry word at the tip of his tongue--but he held it.

"I'm sorry for your involvement in this--whatever this turns out to be," Quistis said softly. "I'll do all I can to see what's going on."

Seifer carefully released her wrist. "...thanks," he acknowledged, and hurried away.

Quistis sighed. Seifer was right, of course--this shouldn't be his problem. She knew very well what he had gone through--in some ways, more than anyone on the SeeD team had. And, although he would never know it, she had been the one who had talked to Laguna, asked him to look after him--a fact that would no doubt offend Seifer greatly if he came wise to it. This troublesome business could end up hurting him more than anyone else--and she had no interest in seeing that happen.

There' wasn't much good that could be said for the state of affairs, as it was.

Odine seemed, if anything, excited and eager to see what would happen in the near future. The fact did nothing to reassure Quistis--partly because she was acutely aware of how sketchy the information they had been able to give was, and partly because she knew the look he had in his eyes. It was the same zeal and glee he had worn when the Lunar Cry had hit Esthar, three months ago.