Hear the cry of war,
louder than before.
With his sword in hand,
to control the land.
Crushing metal strikes,
on this frightening night.
Fall onto your knees,
for the Phantom Lord—

"Phantom Lord"—Metallica

A Time of Peace. A Time of War

Chapter XIII

The day after Zidane and his party returned to Lindblum, Regent Cid's two spies prepared a report. And early that afternoon, a meeting was held in the conference room with the two spies and Zidane, Garnet, Steiner, Beatrix, Eiko, and Regent Cid.

"Everyone," began Regent Cid, "this is Ayden and Thor. They're the spies I sent into Alexandria."

Ayden and Thor bowed to everyone in the room, and the party returned the bow.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," replied Garnet. "I want to thank you for your courage in investigating Alexandria. Now, can you tell me how the citizens're doing?"

Thor nodded. "Although some businesses and homes were damaged—along with the front gate—from what we understood there wasn't any loss of civilian life…Great praise must be given to your military, Queen Garnet!"

Garnet smiled. "Yes, I am always proud of the courage and reliability shown by the troops of Alexandria."

"How many men does Haldan have in his military?" asked Zidane.

"We're not completely sure," replied Ayden.

"Can you give us an estimate?" asked Steiner.

The spies paused.

And Thor responded. "I'd say that within the city itself there's probably at least a hundred or more troops."

"What about the Castle?" added Zidane.

"We don't know," answered Ayden. "The Castle's absolutely off limits. We were unable to infiltrate it."

Zidane nodded. "Understood…Well, I seem to remember Steiner saying that after the first attack, Haldan had at least three hundred troops…"

"That was merely a guess."

Zidane nodded again. "I know that, but we have to work with something."

"But if what you're saying's right," added Beatrix, "then there's at least two hundred soldiers inside the Castle."

"Regardless of which," began Regent Cid, "how do we know that Haldan hasn't increased his army in the last couple of days?"

"That's a possibility," replied Thor. "Haldan has tried to win the people over to his side."

"By doing what?" asked Garnet.

"Propaganda, what else!"

"What kind of propaganda?"

"Two things…First, he's trying to tell the people that their queen wanted to tax them into poverty, due to her own family's lust for tyrannical power. Second, he's trying to tell the people that their queen's illegitimate."

"Illegitimate?"

Ayden nodded. "Yes, he's trying to spread propaganda that Queen Garnet isn't really Queen Brahne's child; and, therefore, has no right to the throne."

The party was silent, but did their best not to show any emotion.

"This may not be good," replied Zidane. "If they learn about Dagger's true origins they may question their loyalty to her…It's kind of funny though, you know?"

"What is?" asked Thor.

"Haldan's questioning Dagger's legitimacy to the throne, but what about his own legitimacy?"

Thor chuckled. "That's a good point, Your Highness…"

"Just 'Zidane,' please?"

Thor nodded. "Anyway, that's a good point, Zidane, but sometimes that doesn't really matter."

"What do you mean?"

"May I answer that for him?" interjected Regent Cid.

"Of course, Your Majesty."

"Thank you. What Thor means, Zidane, is that sometimes it doesn't really matter who has a valid bloodline to the throne. Sometimes it's who has the most powerful army that matters."

Zidane nodded. "I understand all of that, but I wouldn't want Dagger to rule just because she has the power to force her will on the people. I'd rather have the people be loyal to her, because they want to...Well, let me ask you this, how're the people taking to this propaganda?"

"Among those we talked to, the general feeling is that the people've forgotten about the taxes, because they know that Queen Garnet paid them off by selling her own possessions. However, at the same time, they'd like someone to assist them in rebuilding their businesses and homes. Haldan hasn't done that yet—and chances are—he probably won't."

"In terms of gil, how much damage has been done?" asked Garnet.

"Well…I'm not really an expert on that…What about you, Ayden?"

"I'm not either…Do you mean just the city, the Castle, or both?"

"Just the city."

"Hmm…well, I'd say then around 25,000 gil."

Zidane breathed a sigh of relief. "That means that damage to the city wasn't too severe…But wait! We'd more than that amount of money in the treasury, didn't we, Dagger?"

Garnet nodded. "Yes."

"Which means that Haldan could use that money to pay the citizens, and thus increase his own popularity!"

"He could, but I doubt that he will," responded Thor.

"What makes you think so?"

"I don't know Haldan very well, but I think he's a smart commander. Because of this, he's probably sure that Garnet'll counterattack. And because of that, he must use his resources for military spending."

"But he could also try to sell off some of Alexandria's goods for money," Beatrix said.

"And who's he going to do that with?" replied Regent Cid. "I don't recognize him as head of state and neither does Burmecia."

"Everyone has made some good points so far," Steiner said, "but I'd like to know, what do the citizens think about Haldan's message questioning the queen's legitimacy to the throne?"

"Most people we talked to," responded Ayden, "weren't really buying Haldan's propaganda, but at the same time they were uncertain about Garnet."

"Uncertain?" replied Garnet.

Ayden nodded. "Yes, they're not certain if you can protect them."

"Protect them?"

"Yes."

"…I don't understand…"

"But I think I do," interjected Regent Cid. "As a queen you're the head of a family—similar to how a priest is the head of his spiritual family and thus called, 'Father.' To the citizens of Alexandria, you're a mother; and a mother's one who comforts her children and protects them…And in the eyes of some Alexandrians you failed to do that."

"But how did I fail them?"

"In their eyes, it was the incident where Bahamut attacked the city; and this recent attack only adds to their fear," replied Thor.

"Now wait a minute," began Zidane, "there's plenty of blame to go around all of us on this second attack, but its unfair to blame Dagger for the first attack of two years ago. If people want to blame anyone for that attack, they can blame Kuja."

Thor nodded. "That may be, but the fact is that's how they feel about it…But at the same time, I think that if you can make that message known to them, they'll understand."

Zidane returned the nod. "When all of this is over, we'll have a public conference with the people; but I still have one more question to ask you."

"What's that?"

"Do you know who in Haldan's army summoned the eidolon?"

"…No."

"Do you know which eidolon it was?"

"…No."

Zidane nodded, and turned to Garnet. "Do you think they know about Alexander?"

"I don't know…But I certainly hope not!"

Eiko turned to the floor. "If Alexander's summoned then we may've a duel between eidolons."

Zidane paused. "We'll pray that, that doesn't happen."

"But what if it does?"

"…Then we'll pray very few lives're lost."

Steiner nodded. "Agreed, but what's our strategy now?"

Zidane placed his chin between his thumb and first finger. "We should locate the members of our old party, and ask them if they'll help us. We'll look for Vivi, Freya, Quina, and Amarant. After that, I'd like to ask Regent Cid if we could have some of Lindblum's troops and airships?"

Cid nodded. "Yes, you may."

Zidane smiled. "Thank you, Regent."