A Lantern in the Mist

"Wait, I don't get it. What do you mean you didn't send me the apparition of Imogene?" Squall asked the looming magician.

"I mean that I didn't use my powers to make her image appear before you," he declaimed to Squall. He rose from the bed and looked outside the window. "This is mysterious Squall, very curious indeed. This is the very first time the sorceress Imogene has appeared to anyone in more than a thousand years."

Squall appeared to be pondering on the events that led to the mysterious apparition of the furious sorceress. He was beside himself with awe at how similar Rinoa and Imogene were physically, yet he was also afraid—afraid that somehow, Rinoa's life may be in danger. "What is Imogene's true story? It seems that you know more than I do."

Storm tightened the sash that tied his waist and answered, "Before I tell you their story, you should know that Imogene was cursing Gualtiero and not you. It just seems strange though, that she would think that you were Gualtiero. But without further ado, here is the tale of the world's first sorceress knight couple. First off, you should know that even before the era of the Great Hyne, there were already woman mages that walked the earth. It just so seems that none of these women were evil. To tell you the truth, the sorceresses of the past were revered as goddesses—women who had the power to control the forces of nature. It just so happens that Imogene was one of these women who lived just before that era."

Squall interrupted Storm, "Are you telling me that sorceresses already existed even before Hyne was known?"

Storm nodded his head in response. "Yes Squall, that is very true. Hyne was a rebellious sorceress who abused her powers for the cause of stirring fear into the people who trusted their supernatural gifts. The sorceresses who came before her, however, were peaceful, gentle, and kind women who knew how to harness the powers of nature in order to reach out and give aid to those who had no access to the celestial divide. To get back to the story, I'd like to mention that Imogene and Gualtiero were the first couple to have begun the sorceress and knight bonding tradition. It was through their love that they were able to share this special bond that has been handed down through generations of sorceresses and knights. And so for a period of time, they shared a very happy marriage. One day, however, when Gualtiero learned that their son had began to develop the magical gifts bequeathed only to sorceresses such as Imogene and an unusually gifted sorcerer knight such as him, he feared that somehow, the combination of such a bloodline would have stained the fate of his children forever. Unable to face such a future, he abandoned his family and fled to Esthar city."

The younger man asked, "So is that the reason why Imogene decided to curse him?"

The sorcerer nodded in response and added, "Imogene used her magic to trace Gualtiero to Esthar, and before leaving, she was said to have cast a curse upon a mirror and flung it at the wall, shattering it to a thousand pieces. Upon arrival at Esthar, she sought the busy pedestrian streets and stealthily approached his dwelling place. Finding him alone, she marched in and cursed Gualtiero, the way she did to you, and taking a shard of glass, possibly from the mirror, she cut him and herself on the hands, and cast another spell by mixing the bloods together. That day, a blinding light of blue was told to have engulfed the entire area momentarily. When Gualtiero woke up, Imogene was gone. The population assumed that the sorceress was dead, and that ends the sad tale of the romance of Imogene and Gualtiero."

Squall pondered on the details as Storm brought the story to a close. "It was said that Imogene sacrificed herself for the transcendence of her soul into the realm of the supernatural. The ethereal sorceress has always since passed her powers into those she chooses for the purpose of carrying out her cause. I myself do not believe this. What I know though, is that when the blue lights engulfed them, a rare and bizarre phenomenon of magic known as the geminus anima. The function of this spell is to achieve an unparalleled union of the forces of the moon in order to bequeath the gift of immortality to a soul. This is the truth behind the disappearance of Imogene, and I believe as well that it was her who eventually became the great Hyne."

"Great Hyne?" Squall wondered in amazement. "Analyze the events that followed the curse, and how on earth could anyone not know that Imogene could have been Hyne! Storm, are you really sure of this?"

Storm stood up with his hands clasped behind his back and answered, "I am certain of this. Across the generations, Hyne's soul will continue to hunt the family of Gualtiero, my family, and the final battle will ensue with the sorceress' ultimecia triformis. My past has seen the death of the first form, one that I had to battle alone in Time Compression. The second you have slain once again in her kingdom. The third will be preceded by a series of disasters, and it also says that in the midst of battle there shall be a watcher, a witness of the events compression. These prophecies are all shaded in mist lest time won the race against them. Yet," he hissed as he turned to Squall, "only the watcher holds the lantern in the mist, leading the lost in a path in a battle that shall see the rise of the double moon."

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Quistis was alone in the cafeteria, poking the tines of her fork at a lamb chop covered in a sauce made with the freshest Mediterranean vegetables. Everyone else was either in class or mindlessly tiring themselves out in the almost impossible training center. She was just about to nibble on the bone when a familiar man took the seat in front of her.

"You know, it's not nice to be anti-social. Why are you alone Quistis?" Seifer asked her, his jade-colored eyes glittering with concern."

Quistis exhaled exhaustedly and muttered, "Nothing is wrong with my life Seifer. I just want to be alone for a moment."

Seifer made a half-pout, half-smile, shrugged his shoulders, and said, "Okay, if you want me to leave just give me the signal." Just as he was about to stand up, he felt a hand place itself firmly on his shoulder. He looked at Quistis and saw past all the weariness, the stress, the torment, the enduring torture, and a whole gamut of other emotions welled-up in her cocktail of a soul. What he saw was a girl in search of love. A girl, who although was bathed in friends and admirers, longed for the presence of a trustworthy soul.

"I'm sorry Seifer, don't leave. Please stay, I would like to talk to you, perhaps about many things. If you're willing to listen, you can stay. If you are busy, I would understand," she said calmly, almost sadly.

Seifer touched her palm gently and clasped both his hands around it and sat down. "Okay, but don't just sit there looking as though you lost all the people the dictionary calls friends and talk to me. Look at me when I talk to you, because eye contact is very important."

Quistis made a half-hearted snort and said, "Seifer, stop trying to be funny."

Seifer replied in his usual cocky but attractive self, "I'm not, but you are laughing. I think it's better if you would tell me what's bugging you before we lose focus on this conversation."

Quistis closed her eyes, exhaled loudly, and took another sip of her coffee. Once she had swallowed the fragrant brew, she looked at Seifer and released everything, as if she were a floodgate being lowered to release the rushing torrent of liquid locked inside for so long. "Seifer, I am a respectable woman aren't I? And I'm beautiful too. What's more is that I am very accomplished, smart, educated, and extremely well-mannered. I may have a mediocre sense of style, but I look fetching to others. But why is it that I can never settle down with a man? I try so hard, so hard to be with someone I truly like, but eventually I am thrown about like some unwanted rag doll. I am not being obvious, nor am I obnoxious, but relationships never seem to work for me. What am I doing wrong?"

The references to someone she truly liked hit Seifer's core like poison-tipped darts, but he loved Quistis and didn't want to disappoint her. "Don't you think you are rigid sometimes, that sometimes you just sem to close yourselves to chances for you and that person to be together when a door is opened?"

Quistis buried her head in her arms. "That is exactly what I do…I feel so worthless. It's like God created me to be some man-repellant. Everytime the girls try to hook me up, I always refuse. I don't know, am I afraid of commitment? Am I Seifer?" She looked at Seifer earnestly.

Seifer took a bite of his burger and answered, "Yeah, that's it. Think about it, you usually set up so many priorities for yourself that you fail to see the importance of a solid relationship. Quistis, stop being scared of being with others. If the person whom you love tries to hurt you, your friends will come to support you." He stood up and made his way around the table to sit beside Quistis, and he put an arm around her shoulder. "Don't be afraid Quistis. We will still be here, always."

Quistis involuntarily smiled and said, "Thanks Seifer, you really are a friend. I only wish others would see you for what you truly are. You really aren't all that bad." She sipped a bit of her water and offered Seifer, "Seifer, I would really like to thank you for doing your best to comfort me. Would you like to take a walk after this? I have a ton of free time anyways."

Seifer smiled to himself, obviously happy at having had made her day. Just as he was about to return her offer, a familiar voice rang across the dining hall.

"Hi! Seifer! Quistis!" echoed Ouragan's voice as he approached them with a tray piled up with the dining room's delicacies. "If you're just about done eating, can you hold on for a second if it isn't too much trouble?" He grinned at them innocently before sitting down in front of Quistis. His eyes seemed to glow as he stared at her.

Before Seifer could say anything more, Quistis interrupted him and said, "Why of course Ouragan. I could just go and get some dessert." She stood up and brushed a few crumbs off her bodysuit. "Come on Seifer, I feel like an ice cream."

Seifer opened his mouth to protest, but was eventually dragged by Quistis to the gelato counters. In a few moments, they were back with ice cream and a small plate of Schwarzwalder Kirschentorte, or Black Forest Cake. Quistis took grabbed her hazelnut ice cream from Seifer's tray and sat beside Ouragan. Licking her ice cream ever so delicately, she looked at Ouragan and purred, "So Ouragan, how is everything going?" She smiled at him preciously and fluttered her eyes like a little girl in heat. "I heard that you were having a very…very busy day…" she seemed to whisper at him, rolling her "r"s seductively.

Seifer was taken aback by Quistis' attitude. 'Man! What is she doing acting like some kind of Succubus? It's like some kind of flirtatious demon possessed her or something. She's acting too flirty…too flirty to be the Quistis that I know."

Ouragan answered, "I had a great day, just so you would know Quistis." He watched her lick her ice cream like a cat, and he seemed to be amused by it. "Um, I hope you don't mind, but why are you acting a bit strange?" he asked her.

Quistis crinkled her nose and licked her ice cream again. "Because…" she rolled, " I'm feeling light-headed right now and I probably know why but I'm not gonna tell you." She blurted all this out without any clue about what she had just said, and continued, "Ouragan, I have to be honest with you. You are an extremely, extremely wonderful guy, but you can be so callous sometimes." Ouragan froze in his seat, obviously clueless about what she was talking about.

Seifer approached her and put his hand on her shoulder. "Quistis, that's enough. Is there something wrong with you?"

Quistis whirled around and faced Seifer. "No Seifer, it's just that I'm having people problems right now," she hissed at him. "You see, there are some guys who don't seem to understand that eye contact is a really important thing. You try to get someone's attention so that they would notice you…but NO! They seem to pass by you day by day as if you were some kind of specter. Well, I am not a specter! I have feelings too! And I wouldn't for the life of me understand how some extremely cruel and heartless people think!" Her eyes seemed to be glazed over, and she was talking like a drunkard.

Ouragan and Seifer were both glued to their seats, not quite sure what to do with the woman mindlessly talking to them right now. Ouragan said, "I don't understand Quistis, what did I do?"

Quistis clapped her hand on her forehead, laughed, and shook her head. She pointed at Ouragan and said, "You see! Ignorance…sheer ignorance. Do you know what ignorance could do to people? It could paralyze them from building good relationships with other people. That's what you are Ouragan…a cripple. You can't maintain relationships with any given person, even if that person is an old, old friend. You can be heartless sometimes, you know that?" Her eyes blinked rapidly before she said, "I can't believe I even liked you, you insensitive jerk…" She stood up, was just about to leave, and passed out on the floor.

Ouragan and Seifer rushed to her side. "Quistis! Quistis!" Ouragan shouted out loud while shaking her in an attempt to wake her up. Seifer took a glass of ice water and splashed it on her. Ouragan looked up at him and said, "Seifer, that won't help. Stay here and give her CPR and I'll go look for a first-aid kit."

Seifer looked at him bewildered and asked, "First-aid kit? This campus is so huge! How do you expect to get to the infirmary and come back here with the right equipment in time?"

Ouragan drew a little remote-like device out of his pocket and pressed a button. "This building is automated and is studded with transport devices. It should take me a little while to get to Doctor Kadowaki's office to get what I need." Moment later, one of those hubber discs arrived and took Ouragan to the clinic. Seifer stayed behind and began to administer CPR to Quistis before she became completely unconscious. He began mashing her chest in order to revive her. "Come on Quistis, breathe!"

He moved his mouth to hers and released a huge puff of air upon contact. "Why are you doing this to me?" he asked her unconscious form. He breathed in another load of air and filled Quistis' lungs again with air. After a few puffs, Ouragan came back with a first-aid kit. "Oh great, now here comes the hero to the rescue," Seifer thought sarcastically.

Ouragan jumped out of the transport disc and brought out an oxygen mask and put it on Quistis' mouth. While he was operating the mask, Seifer asked him, "What was with you and her earlier?"

Ouragan continued to operate the device before answering, "I really have no clue why she went berserk on me. I didn't realize she had the hots for me. Then she just went ballistic. I really don't know Seifer. Maybe she just got drunk and started ranting some random stuff at me. Whatever the cause was, I wouldn't know. But I'm sure she wasn't herself when she was telling me those things. I'm sure she didn't even mean it."

When Quistis' chest began heaving up and down, Ouragan removed the mask from her face. Drawing a syringe from the pack, he filled it up with glucose and gave her a shot of the viscous liquid. Flinging her limp body over her shoulders, he brought her over to the hover disc and asked Seifer to accompany him and her to the infirmary.

"Quistis will need her rest. I'm not sure if she's all that well now, and since I've never seen anyone blurt out strange things and pass out all of a sudden, I'm sure we'll need Doctor Kadowaki to examine her case. I'm sure she'll eventually find out whatever's wrong with her," he informed Seifer on the way. When they reached the infirmary, Ouragan entered the office and lay Quistis on the waiting area bench. Inside, he found Squall returning from a visit with Rinoa.

"Squall, is Rinoa alright?" Ouragan inquired of him.

Squall pushed the button that closed Rinoa's room from the outside and turned to Ouragan. "She's doing much better. I reckon that she'll be alright in a few days. Hopefully, everything will turn out okay."

Ouragan nodded and said, "I'm glad to know that. At least she's fine, but we have another victim. Quistis just passed out in the dining hall and I really need Doctor Kadowaki to help me with this. By the way, where is she?"

Squall turned around and pointed to Rinoa's room. "She's giving Rinoa a few medical treatments, but she'll be out in a moment. Do you want me to call her?"

Ouragan shook his head and said, "No, no, that's fine. Rinoa needs her attention, and Quistis' condition isn't extremely serious. This can wait." It was then that Seifer entered the room where Squall and Ouragan were talking.

"Squall, Ouragan," he acknowledged before removing his coat and put it over Quistis. "Say Squall, how is Rinoa?"

Squall repeated, "She's doing better, but she still needs to rest a bit. I don't think I'll be able to take her out of the infirmary in another few days, so she's confined in that room."

Seifer raised an eyebrow and asked, "So you let her sleep alone? Squall, that's not the nicest thing to do."

Squall shook his head and said, "No, you know I wouldn't do that. There's another bed in that room where I stay for the night. That way, I could watch over Rinoa when the infirmary staff is sleeping."

"I see. Well, I think we need Dr. Kadowaki now because I don't want Quistis' condition to go unnoticed," Seifer said before sitting beside the space where Quistis lay. He stroked her blonde locks with his hand and said, "Squall, do you think she's done with Rinoa?"

"Let me check," Squall told him before going inside. When he came out, Dr. Kadowaki followed him and approached the sleeping Quistis. "Is everything alright?"

Seifer narrated the events that had transpired earlier in the day. After recounting the strange things Quistis had done, Doctor Kadowaki advised him to leave her in the office for the time being before asking him to bring Seifer to one of the treatment rooms. After being asked to leave the office, Squall and Dr. Kadowaki were left alone.

When Squall was sure that Seifer had left the vicinity of the area, he turned to the doctor and asked, "Well, what do you think happened to Rinoa?"

Doctor Kadowaki's began growing taller, her limbs stretching to lengths that seemed impossible for her tiny frame, and the pigments on her skin and clothing shifted like paints dripping from a myriad of colors. Soon, her white doctor's robe was replaced by a dark flowing sorcerer's robe, and once again Storm stood where the "doctor" had once been. "You are lucky that today is the good doctor's day off from work. But anyhow, her powers appear to be subdued, but I assume that the magic within her is concentrating its efforts in nourishing the new life developing in her womb."

"But is she alright?" Squall wanted to confirm.

Storm nodded and said, "She is very healthy. You wouldn't need to worry about her. I am perfectly sure that Rinoa is only recovering from having had a child develop so quickly in her body…"

"Wait!..." Squall said, interrupting storm. "What do you mean by so quickly?"

"I meant that the child is developing his powers at an alarmingly quick rate. I could tell the baby's ability to emanate a source of magic from within him. Physically, he grows at the rate that humans do. Mentally, he is capable of doing just about anything that the human psyche requires of him, even if that requirement demands that he use his skills to create a barrier around himself and his mother. So, essentially, your wife is safe. You wouldn't see the shield now, but I am very sure that if you attempt to hurt Rinoa, your baby will come in her defense," he said quite rapidly.

"So my baby has powers already?" Squall asked the older man.

"Yes," Storm answered frankly. "And so it seems…"

"What?" Squall wondered.

"That history has once again repeated itself," Storm whispered to himself in a very curious manner.

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Hi! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! It took me quite some time to do some revising to the plot, so I hope this chapter really pleases you. As always, I beg you to read and review. I am putting my effort to write such a story, and I really wish you would be kind enough to put your thoughts about my work on the website. Thank you very much and I hope you're anticipating the next chapter as well.