Brevity is the heart of Truth. (At the core of Truth lies delusion.) The world is not brief--but it is altogether too much so.

Is brevity beauty?

More and more I find myself at the centre of the whirlwind, praying the winds for mercy. Does day come at the death of night? The clouds die and fall and nourish thirsting grass. I am in the eye of the worldwrath, yearning to be at its heart.

If there is hope for salvation, it is found in the hands of the Destroyer--the Creator cast away his creation, and when it followed he did what no true father could.

He plays the fiddle while Heaven burns above him.

-

Fortunately--they suspected--the voices didn't return that day. Speculation ran rampant about what had caused it, but without any actual grounding such speculation was only slightly more useful to them than a shipment of powdered Mesmerize horns. (The horns had arrived because Odine had had some bizarre idea about personal shielding from the effects of the Lunatic Pandora, but he had needed intact Mesmerize horns and likely wouldn't remember the idea the next morning, anyway. It got passed down, as so many other things did, to one of his lab-assistant interns, who would waste a considerable portion of his or her education on researching it without coming to any kind of a solution but with a great deal of time to write reports that could easily be used as textbooks on what not to do. In this way, the cycle of Esthar public education went on.)

Squall was preoccupied when Selphie and Zell disappeared, and Rinoa was still badly shaken. She was still denying being able to remember what the words said--but her denial was so shaky, so forced, that Squall had the dark feeling that she was lying.

Once the opportunity had presented itself--late at night, when Rinoa had been convinced to sleep at last--Squall skipped the preliminary stages and decided to hear it straight from the Grendel's mouth--the breathing centre of Esthar's research, Doctor Odine.

When he arrived at the lab, despite the late hour, Odine was hard at work monitoring... something. Something that looked complex and technical and probably only made sense to Odine and his associates, who were working away in the lab below him as he watched them in roughly the same manner a Thrustaevis would watch its next meal.

"Vat do you vant?" the doctor snapped. "I am a busy man."

"I understand that," Squall said, hoping--but not really believing--that civility would gain him some points. "I'd like to see you about the fact that a number of people seem to have been hearing voices over the past day."

"Oh. Zat." Odine seemed totally disinterested, as if it was old news. "It iz a fluke. A meaningless fluctuation in the subliminal and prethaumatical mind brought on by ze lingering periodic effects of Time Compression."

Sometimes, Squall doubted that the Doctor himself really knew what he was saying. "I'd like to know the cause," he tried.

"Obviously," Odine explained, simultaneously monitoring what Squall could only hope wasn't an important reaction in the lab below and scanning over the results of four entirely unrelated scientific reports, "it iz all her fault. Ze occurrences zeem to have coincided vith ze moment of ze junction scan--"

It was hard not to lose your patience with Odine, but Squall routinely had to deal with people who tried his patience. thus, with a good deal of sufferance, he prodded "Who is 'she?'"

"Ze zubject," Odine said, with an aggravated wave of his hand. "Ze von from ze Crystal Pillar." Odine kicked out at the console, for no readily discernible reason. He didn't return to his train of thought--it had probably derailed somewhere, causing a great deal of property damage and costing several lives.

"Why would a junction scan cause people to hear voices?" Odine was widely regarded as the most brilliant man alive. Squall always found it hard to resist the urge to use small words and talk slowly to him.

"Because ze scan resonates, and ze disruption resonates." Odine was sounding less inclined to talk as the conversation limped gamely on.

"I would like more information," Squall prodded.

"Vhy should you vant to know?" Odine was decidedly irate now, not only at the fact that he was being asked to sully science with practical application but also because he was stuck in the room, explaining lofty ideas to a layman. "Your job iz not to understand ze difficulty. It iz to ensure zat it does not interfere vith ze smooth operation of zis lab."

Squall refrained from telling the doctor that it really wasn't his job to look after the lab, and also refrained from telling him the real reason he was looking for the information. "We've suspended all activities relating to the Crystal Pillar until these things can be resolved," he not-quite-lied, filtering out all the information that Odine didn't care about anyway. Odine took the lie at face value--apparently just assuming that if it was his problem, the rest of the world would be concerned, too.

"Zere iz no danger from ze Crystal Pillar," he griped, staring sullenly at his console. "Ze resonance iz likely a zimple aftereffect of Time Compression, lunar energy, and ze zpecific powers of ze Sorceress and GF."

(We may be getting somewhere,) Squall thought. "So the problem lies in the GF," he said--aware that it was probably the wrong answer, and also aware that he would get more out of Odine if he made the doctor correct him than if he showed any actual insight.

"No!" Odine gestured wildly, scowling. "Zat iz vrong! Zat iz ignorance!" Hopping down from his stool, he ran to the other end of the room and began assaulting one of the lab panels. "Ze reaction cannot originate from ze GF, because ze GF lacks ze starting capacity."

"Which is?"

"Ze ability to influence ze flow of time," Odine snapped. "Zere are only three things in ze vorld zat can do zat."

"Which are"

Odine scowled. "Ze resonance array at Tears Point, ze new Sorceress, and ze Time Sorceress, Ellone."

(Rinoa hasn't been using her power for anything, recently, and I don't believe Ellone would have. Certainly nothing this strong.) "Tell me about the resonance array."

Odine waved a dismissing hand at him. "Zere iz nothing I vish to tell you."

If he wanted to, Squall could invoke Presidential authority. However, he was well aware that Odine didn't care a whit about what Laguna thought or wanted, and the man could very easily be arrested without changing his attitude any.

"Doctor--"

"No!" Odine hit his desk. "Zis iz a vaste of time. You do not understand ze magnitude. You focus on ze idiocy, ignoring ze very fabric of ze issue!" Odine gave the impression that he was trying to mangle a metaphor, and falling short even of that. "Zere is bigger vork to be done."

"Bigger?"

"Zis iz not ze actions of any von Sorceress," Odine said. "Zis must be a reaction from ze core of Lunar energy."

(Lunar energy doesn't make people hear things,) Squall thought. "Why?"

Odine rounded on him, waving his hands in a futile attempt to condense the Great Ideas of Science into words anyone could understand. "You zee zis disturbance, yes? You zee ze vaves. Ze vaves have both ze magnitude and ze frequency, and Ultimecia made zese same vaves, but not ze same, because zere was greater frequency. Ultimecia cannot make zese vaves, because ze magnitude is too great. If Ultimecia cannot, no Sorceress can, because Ultimecia vas ze greatest. As ze frequency increases, you vill zee zat it iz a natural phenomenon in response to Time Compression. Ze voices are echoes vithout zientific merit. I decide this now."

(As the frequency increases...?) "Doctor--"

"I vill not speak to you more," Odine said, moodily stomping back to his stool and hoisting himself up into it. "Ze Crystal Pillar must be examined. Odine has spoken."

Nothing would be accomplished by pressing him further. Squall turned and walked out, vowing to try again the next day--when the doctor's fickle interest might just grant him another chance.