Quistis and Seifer stood before the open weapons locker, looking over the gleaming array of rapiers. Quistis reached out and pulled one towards her, testing it for balance. Satisfied, she handed it to Seifer, who ritually examined it. He handed it back and made his own selection. After she had a chance to examine his choice of weapon – a slightly shorter, heavier blade – they took their positions opposite each other. Zell, sitting hunched in front of a chessboard, looked on.
Quistis took a few experimental swings as she stood opposite Seifer.
"Don't worry, blondie," he smirked. "I'll go easy on you. In fact, I'll even do this left-handed."
Quistis frowned as Seifer bowed low, transferring his weapon to his left hand with a distinct air of noblesse oblige. He stood back up, ready to begin.
"Shall we?" he asked, still grinning.
Quistis didn't answer, exploding towards him, her rapier lunging out in a flash of silver that came darting directly at Seifer's scar. He barely had time to step backward, awkwardly, and parry the attack.
Her foil flickered down, smacking Seifer unexpectedly on the back of his left hand, making him yelp in surprise. Suddenly, he'd dropped the weapon, and Quistis stepped nimbly in to retrieve in, grasping it in her free hand. Seifer had just started to step away from her when he found both weapons pointed directly at his heart.
"Top of my class, remember?" she said.
Zell laughed hysterically from the sidelines. Seifer turned his head to see the blond fighter rolling on the floor.
"It's not that funny, Chicken-Wuss," Seifer growled.
"Yes it is!" Zell howled, breaking out into laughter again. "Man, she got you good! Did you forget she holds the top scores in every category, including swordplay?"
Seifer turned his head back to Quistis, who still hadn't moved her weapons from their delicate position at his heart.
"Now, are we going to do this properly, or do I have to humiliate you some more with cheap theatrics?" she asked, smiling sweetly.
Seifer took his weapon from Quistis and returned to his initial position, foil in his right hand.
"What about you, Zell?" she asked, while Seifer was readying himself, "You moved yet?"
"Yeah," he called back. "Pawn to Rook's three."
"Queen to Knight's eight, check," she shot back, swiping with her sword once more. "And I suggest you resign while the offer's still there."
Seifer rolled his eyes, grinning. "Yeah, and I'm the show-off."
They saluted each other and Seifer's blade flashed forward, targeting Quistis left' shoulder. She deflected the blow languidly, moving her weapon to strike at Seifer's feet. Seifer took a quick hop backwards, neatly dancing away from Quistis' attack, and aimed a sidelong blow at the blonde's face. As it came towards her, Quistis reacted, ducking quickly and lashing out with a cut that, in with a real blade, would have eviscerated Seifer. At the same time, Seifer saw her rapier coming towards him, and twisted at an impossible angle, turning himself away from her, and reaching over his shoulder to tag her on the head with his blade.
"Zell?" they both called out in unison, asking for a judgment.
"Huh?" he said. "Oh, it looked pretty much like you guys hit at the same time. No point, either way."
Both fighters grumbled to themselves as they stood up, preparing to go another round.
"I'm never going to win this," Zell muttered. "No one beats you in chess. Or anything else."
"What was that, Zell?" Quistis asked.
"I said, 'Rook to Knight one,'" he sighed.
"Ah. Well, in that case, Pawn to Bishop seven."
The door slid open, admitting Tia, currently the highest-ranked cadet in Esthar Garden and self-appointed protégé of Quistis. She waited respectfully in the doorway for an invitation to enter. Like Quistis, the young redhead had a gravity born of relating to people many years her senior.
"Tia, come in," Quistis said. "I've been eagerly following your progress in the tournament. Maybe you can help Instructor Dincht with a little trouble he's having."
Tia crossed over to Zell as Seifer and Quistis saluted each other again, signifying the end of their duel. They returned their foils to the weapons locker, and joined Tia and Zell at the chessboard, Quistis resuming her seat opposite Zell.
"Well, Tia?" she asked, raising one eyebrow. "What do you think? What's the best possible move for Inspector Dincht?"
Tia's eyes went wide at the question. She stood between Zell and Quistis, her hands clasped in front of her, looking from one to the other. Seifer kept his distance, a smug and enigmatic grin on his face.
Suddenly, Quistis realized what she'd done.
"Tia, relax," she said. "I understand that the chess tournament is one of SeeD's biggest events for ranking cadets prior to the field exam. Right now, that tournament is probably the only thing on your mind.
"I also understand that I've just asked you to choose sides between two senior Instructors. In the past, that could be the grounds for great animosity. Back... with Headmaster Kramer, the politics got pretty fierce. But this isn't like that. So don't worry. This is just a friendly game. You're not being graded on your answer, and Zell's not going to hold it against you when you tell him he's losing."
Tia relaxed visibly.
"May I? I mean... Permission to..."
"Go ahead, Tia," Quistis said. "You have the same luxuries in front of them as you do in front of me."
"I'm so relieved, because Instructor Dincht's position is so weak. He should have resigned several moves ago. I mean, it's all over. He'll move that Rook to block your Bishop's Pawn, and then there's nothing to stop the Queen's Pawn, and you'll have two Queens, and then he's just dead. I don't even know how he managed to hold out for this long." The words all came out in a torrent, a verbal paroxysm she'd held back with obvious difficulty.
Quistis smiled. "Zell, tell her how you managed to hold out so long."
"The year I graduated from SeeD," Zell said, "I took third place in the tournament. I even beat out a certain Commander you may know."
"You beat Commander Leonhart?" Tia asked, astonished. Zell beamed at the memory.
"No matter how hard I tried," Quistis recalled, "I could not disabuse the Commander of his notion that 'chess is just a game.' I tried all the standard arguments: its emphasis on pure strategy and psychology, the battle of wills, the marshalling of forces, the replication of battle, all the reasons why we emphasize it so heavily in the curriculum at Garden, but it never got through to him."
"Of course," Seifer added, "not so very long later, he discovered Triple Triad, and no one has been safe since."
"But I suspect, Tia," Quistis said, "That however much you may enjoy hearing tales out of school, it was not your original intent in coming here. What can we do for you?"
"The Harvester of Grandidi Forest," Tia said.
"Pardon?" Quistis replied.
"When we were at Balamb Garden, you let me run a capture mission against an unknown entity that was killing hunters in Grandidi Forest. That mission failed. At the time you went into the Dark to interrogate Headmaster Kramer's assassin, you said, and I quote, 'when all of this is over, you can run another mission into the forest, and I'll be the first to sign up to help you capture that thing.'
"I have prepared a full mission profile using the data from the previous mission. All I need are two SeeDs to accompany me, as per your prior instructions. I'm here to give you the opportunity to sign on."
"What time frame are you looking at?"
"I don't foresee it taking more than two, three days maximum."
Quistis nodded sharply. "Never let it be said that I went back on my word. Zell, can you cover my classes?"
"You know the Trepies will be crushed," he said.
"Knowing your classes, they'll be crushed, folded, and mangled," she replied, as Zell got up to leave. "Okay, Tia. Who do you want for the third person?"
Tia didn't answer. Quistis turned to look at her, following the girl's gaze across the room to where it rested: Seifer. He watched her for a long moment before reacting.
"Really?" he asked, smirking on one side of his face. "Are you so confident?" He took a step towards the small girl, his long legs carrying him an impressive distance. "Don't you know who I am?"
"Seifer Almasy," she replied, doing her best to keep her voice level.
"And?" he asked, stepping closer, arms folded over his chest. "Is that all you know about me?"
"No. You chaired the both the Junior Disciplinary Committee and the Disciplinary Committee using your authority to cause as many fights and disciplinary problems as you stopped. You failed three field exams, each time with more disastrous results than the last. You hold Garden's record for demerits accumulated and hours spent in detention, although you also acquired quite a reputation for escaping from the detention facility. You're reckless and insubordinate."
Seifer nodded very slowly, smiling. "All very true."
"You're also Commander Leonhart's hand-picked head of security. The Commander himself intervened on your behalf on more than one occasion. You're the only person to have stood up to former Headmaster Kramer at a Tribunal and return to Garden. Your scores, in many areas, are second only to Instructor Trepe's. As I understand, it's still undecided as to whether or not you or Commander Leonhart is the actual gunblade champion of SeeD."
"And, if you complete your mission while keeping my 'reckless and insubordinate' impulses in check, then it looks like you've done the impossible. Am I right?" Seifer tilted his head slightly, his voice mimicking Tia's with deadly accuracy.
"Granted," she blinked her eyes a few times at his verbal mockery, but held her ground.
"Well, then," he said, "why should I let myself be used by an overambitious cadet trying to put herself in the spotlight? That's one to think about." Seifer put one finger to his lips as he turned away from her.
"Oh, enough of this!" Quistis exclaimed. "He's just stringing you along, Tia. One half of his devious little brain is here playing mind games with you while the other half is in his room deciding what to pack. Seifer never changes."
"Too true," he laughed. "So when do we leave?"
* *
Nightfall saw Quistis, Tia, and Seifer encamped inside the Grandidi Forest, having spent much of the day in transit from Esthar Garden. Now, they'd built a small fire and pitched their tent for the evening.
"So," Seifer said to Tia, as he restlessly paced the campsite, "tell me about this thing we're hunting."
"Well," she replied, from her seat in front of the tent, "you have all the material in the briefing I gave you."
"Yes," Seifer said, brandishing the folder she'd carefully prepared for him. SeeD protocols dictated that the mission profiler log the details of the mission on the Garden Network, but Tia had gone the extra mile and printed out hard-copies of the briefing for her team members. "I've been meaning to speak to you about this."
"Oh?" she asked eagerly. "Is there a problem?"
With a casual flick of his long arm, Seifer's arm flicked out and sent the briefing file through the air. It arced straight for its intended course and landed atop the fire, without even causing a stir of sparks. The cover peeled back and Tia watched in horror and dismay as the carefully arrayed photographs of the creature crinkled and blackened. Seifer watched her reaction in smug satisfaction.
"Why... What... Why did you do that?" she sputtered. Panicked, she looked to Quistis for help. Quistis nodded at Tia, encouraging her, and gave no further reaction.
"Why indeed? What would make me do such a thing?"
"You're trying to prove a point," Tia said, firmly. "To teach me a lesson."
"Which is?"
"That you have no intention of following my orders, that you've only been playing along up until now, and that the game is now officially over."
Seifer tilted his head back and laughed. "Impressive. But also wrong. You'll have to try harder, kid."
Tia looked wounded and surprised. Quistis knew the feeling and wanted to help the girl, but she also knew that Seifer had a more valuable lesson in mind.
Seifer walked over to Tia and knelt down in front of her. "What day of the week did the hunters encounter this creature?"
"Tuesday," she answered, without hesitation.
"How many hunters were there?" Seifer fired the question back almost before she had finished speaking.
"Three."
"How many died?"
"One, two escaped."
"Gender of hunters?"
"One woman, two men."
"How did the victim die?"
"He was skewered with a spear."
"From which direction did they approach the creature's lair?"
"From the west, heading east."
"In which direction did they escape?"
"Running north-northwest."
"When you fought the creature, what type of weapon did it use?"
"A giant sword."
"How many victims has this thing claimed, total?"
"Seven."
"How many sightings?"
"Fifteen."
"The fact that it's used two different weapons and successfully fought off a team that includes two trained SeeDs, what does that tell you?"
"That it's intelligent. And tool-using. And fiercely dedicated to guarding it's lair."
"Very good," he finally nodded his approval. "So what have you just demonstrated to me?"
"That I know all the facts of our mission?"
"More than that: that you know them well enough to relay them to your squad in the field. You know them with total precision and accuracy, and you can state them without faltering. Now, the lesson continues:
"These 'hunters' who were first attacked by this creature – why were they really in that forest?"
Tia looked puzzled. "What... I don't understand."
"What was their occupation?"
"I don't... I mean, how is that relevant?"
"Without looking at it, the third page of your briefing shows the article from Occult Fan magazine, with a picture of those two hunters, not long after their escape from the creature. The hunter on the right is wearing a necklace. What is it made of?"
Tia studied the ground for a moment before answering. "I don't know."
"What about the shirt of the hunter on the left? What is that made of?"
"I don't know."
"The one on the left is also wearing a bandolier. What caliber ammunition is it?"
"I don't know." She paused for a long moment, waiting for any more questions. "But I still don't see how any of this is relevant."
Seifer nodded to her. "Take a look at the photo, and tell me what you see."
Tia looked at the photo in her folder, studying it intently before looking back up at Seifer.
"The necklace is made of teeth, and the ammunition is very high caliber, but other than that, I don't know what you're asking."
"Instructor?" Seifer asked.
Quistis slid over to sit next to Tia.
"Look at the teeth, Tia. Remember what we learned in class."
Tia took a deep breath and started analyzing what she saw. "Two of the teeth are long and needlelike, characteristic of what you'd find in the dragon family. Three others are more like tusks, with a forward arc. The teeth are for goring, rather than chewing, length indicative of behemoths. Then there are five that are twisted and discolored. This suggests that they've been removed from members of the deadly plant family: either an ochu or a malboro."
"Good, now look at the shirt. What material is it made of?"
Tia stared at the photograph intently, and Quistis could almost hear the girl's mind at work.
"It's reacted unfavorably to the sweat on his body, so between that and the way the sun in the photo hits it, I'd guess and say it's silk."
"Right. Now look at it again with your connector."
Tia reached into her pack and produced her Garden Network Connector, the flat panel on which all team members received their briefings. She called up the photograph.
"Okay."
"Now, magnify the silk until you can see something significant."
Tia magnified the image until she could see the weave of the silk.
"What the hell?" she breathed. The fabric, instead of a traditional cross-shaped weave pattern, had a star-shaped weave to it, like a series of very fine spider's webs, knit together.
"That is caterchipillar silk. Rare, and very expensive."
"And the gun?" Seifer asked. "Do you know what kind of ammo that is?"
"No," Tia replied. "But the gun must be something to need ammo like that."
"That ammo is specially made for a Bismarck model rifle. We have a few back at Garden, and Irvine, of course, has one. The guns themselves are light, but they have a nasty kick on them. They have enough more than enough stopping power to knock a T-Rexaur on its rear. So what does all this add up to, Tia?"
"Well, these were no ordinary hunters," she replied.
"What were they?" Quistis asked.
"Poachers. Big game hunters. Something on that order."
"Right. And given that at least one of them had a small cannon on hand, and they surprised it, how did they wind up running for their lives? They had the advantage of opportunity, and of weaponry."
"They didn't surprise it. It surprised them."
"And what does that tell you about it?" Seifer chimed in.
"That it's a lot smarter than anyone – including me -- has given it credit for. But how did you know all this?" Tia asked him. You never even looked at the folder I gave you."
:"Central tenet of the lesson," Seifer replied. "I'm smart. I'm not, say, Quistis-smart, but I'm still smart. I've passed every one of SeeD's core requirements, generally with high marks."
"When you wanted them," Quistis muttered, raising an eyebrow at Seifer.
"The point is this, Tia: there are no dumb SeeDs. We all face strict academic challenges, in addition to our physical curriculum. Even the biggest, most hulking brute in our ranks writes poetry, or can discuss classical philosophy. As such, we don't need to receive our briefings twice. Your extra effort is certainly appreciated, but it's unneeded. Trust your team members to read the profile you give them, and to ask questions if they don't understand. You with me?"
"I see," Tia nodded.
"Good. Thus ends the lesson."
"And on that note," Quistis said, "let's call it a night. We've got a good day's march ahead of us tomorrow."
"Fine by me," Seifer replied. "Who wants first watch?"
"I'll take it," Quistis said. "I'm feeling restless."
Seifer and Tia crawled into their sleeping bags while Quistis did a quick tour of the camp's perimeter. Finding nothing amiss, she settled down to keep watch.
"Quistis?" asked Seifer, his voice sounding small and afraid.
"Yes, Seifer?" She rolled her eyes as she turned to him.
"Can you tell me a bedtime story?"