Still only handful of reviews (people who took the trouble: thank you!), but I'm going to continue posting updates on this story anyway.

Join Seifer while he mesmerises over what the hell made him decide to side with the Sorceress

Fire Storm, Part 6 – Gush

He ran the polishing cloth slowly along Hyperion's sleek blade, caressing it as if it were a lover. The black metal gleamed in the dusky light that shone around him, casting shadows on the walls of his small room in the Deling City Palace. A dark blade for a dark Knight. He ran the cloth along the length of the weapon once more, a humourless smile twisting the corners of his mouth at the irony of it all.

He had envisioned himself to be somewhere entirely different at this point in time. His original plan had provisioned for him to be a soldier in the fight against the Evil Sorceress. Perhaps even a hero in that war, but definitely not the Knight of said Sorceress.

But that was exactly what he was now, and there was no going back anymore.

Not that he'd had much of a choice, back there in the Timber studio. It was always so easy to succumb to beauty and power, but the fact was that he wouldn't have had another option even if she had been hideous to behold.

But she wasn't. He'd be a liar not to admit that his Sorceress looked beautiful in her form-fitting black dress and her elaborate crown. The odd lighting in the studio had given her an ethereal appearance, like an angle. A dark angle that had come to seduce him for his soul.

And the chanting…The unearthly voices had been clouding his mind, and his heart had been beating in his ears.

Fithos, lusec, wecos, vinosec…

But his eyes hadn't been able to see anything but her face, so familiar and yet so alien.

Matron.

And yet not her at all. She looked frail like porcelain and still her features spoke of fathomless power. Her smile was as warm as it had been when he was a boy, even if that warmth didn't reach her eyes now. And then she had spoken to him, sounding so sweetly even if her words were knives.

Closing his eyes, he could see it all again.

"…Poor, poor boy…"

Her voice was like thousands of little bells ringing. It was impossible to tell if she actually pronounced the words, or if it was her thoughts resonating in his head. It was so enthralling, but still even more alarming. She was his mother, his Matron, but her words sounded not at all like her.

Fithos, lusec, wecos, vinosec…

Willing aside the fog that the voices created had been easier than he had dared to hope.

"Stay away from me!" he shouted, trying to regain control over his thoughts.

She merely smiled. "Such a confused little boy. Are you going to step forward? Retread? You have to decide."

"Stay back!"

Fithos, lusec, wecos, vinosec…

To his left, he heard people approaching. Matron raised her hands in a gesture, and Instructor Trepe and Squall, who had followed him, sagged to their knees, frozen.

"The boy in you is telling you to come," she continued as if she hadn't been interrupted. "The adult in you is telling you to back off."

Fithos, lusec, wecos, vinosec…

She glided more than walked when she moved. "You can't make up your mind. You don't have the right answer." Another eerie smile appeared, lining her coaxing words. "You want help, don't you? You want to be saved from this predicament."

Fithos, lusec, wecos, vinosec…

"Shut up!"

As ever, the chanting had made it hard to think, but he had forced himself to, anyway. His thoughts had been incoherent images and words, but there had been a line in them. One that he stood by even now.

This woman wasn't so much his Matron, but the Sorceress he had known would come. It sounded as improbable as it was unexpected, but the magic inside him that stirred whenever she came near to him told him that it was true nonetheless.

But why there, why then? Had she come for Deling's speech? Initially maybe, but she had approached him for a very different purpose. That, his powers confirmed to him, too. He had had to fight to keep them under control, but their intention had created the only clear thought in his muddled head.

'Every Sorceress needs a Knight.'

And that alone had been her purpose…

"Don't be ashamed to ask for help," she purred. "Besides, you're only a little boy."

But it was clear as daylight that she wanted his help, not offer him hers. It was her habit of referring to him as 'boy' whenever she wanted him to do something he wasn't inclined to. And he hated that.

"I'm not... Stop calling me a boy!"

Fithos, lusec, wecos, vinosec…

"You don't want to be a boy anymore?"

"I'm not a BOY!" She was grating his nerves very effectively. Losing focus quickly and getting more and more frustrated by the second, he released his grip on the Galbadian president, who ran off.

Fithos, lusec, wecos, vinosec…

She approached him, almost touching his face with her long nails. "Come with me to a place of no return. Bid farewell to your childhood."

In hindsight, he wasn't sure if he'd done the right thing. But he had had no more than a split second to decide on the next course of action. And as it turned out, it was a key decision where his own part in this play was concerned. Under normal circumstances, careful consideration of the possible consequences would have been an absolute necessity. But the circumstances had been far from normal and had denied him any chance of making a rational decision.

So now he found himself running the events in the studio over and over again in his head, at every pass trying to convince himself that he'd done the right thing. Usually he was very good at taking away his own doubt, but not this time. For the first time in his life, he felt that he had made a decision that would turn for the worse. And every glance he cast at his Lady only served to confirm that suspicion further.

But what other options had there been open to him? She wanted him as her Knight. That much she'd made clear back in the Timber Studio. Now, playing that role had never been in his plans, but if he had declined, she would have taken another. And her options had been very limited at that point in time.

If she had wanted Deling, she would have reeled him in before then. But she didn't want him. She wanted a warrior at her side. After all, that was what Sorceresses had Knights for. And there had been plenty of warriors at the scene, some more suitable than others.

Instructor Trepe had been there. But even if she was an able warrior, she was overly-correct and dead-loyal to Garden, and neither made her very liable to side with a Sorceress, even if that Sorceress was their Matron. The same was true for Zell and the little messenger girl, who were both hyperactive and overly-impulsive to boost.

So the only reasonable alternative to him that she had had, was a sullen but smart and capable soldier with the courage of a lion. And he couldn't allow her to take as her Knight the one who was destined to kill her, now could he?

If this was her in the first place. The dying woman from his memories was definitely not Matron. And this Sorceress was. At least she called herself by Matron's name. And she looked like her. Or was there something he had missed?

Either way, the situation had left him to volunteer. It was not what he wanted. It was not what he had planned, but he couldn't allow Squall to be ensnared by whatever it was that she desired. And as a consequence, it was a fact that she was now his Lady, and he was expected to do her bidding.

Looking at the clock, he noticed there was another two hours left before the parade through Deling City tonight. Sorceress Edea wanted to show off her power to the people she would soon govern, and the extravagant parade she had planned was just what she needed. And her Knight would stand right by her side, all the way.

After all, it wasn't as if he had much of a choice.

R&R, please!