Ripples in a Pond
Chapter 7
General Rating: PG-13
Warnings: N/A. Yaoi in further chapters (beware, there is one definite pairing and one threesome)
Summary: All bearings are lost when SeeDs experience an unfortunate crash that sends them on a planet where technology is at its beginning and monarchs stillrule. Theonly thingthey can do is try and keep their heads over the water and go with the flow, less they drown.ff8-ff9
Notes: Took way too long, I know.
Truth be told, aside from the dragon's attack, the rest of the trip proved to be quite boring. Seifer was leaning on the railing, staring ahead but not seeing the sea underneath them and the mountainous range of the main continent growing ever bigger on the horizon. That Gale person had assured them –in between profuse thanks- that now that they were over the ocean, the risk of them being attacked was virtually nil. Nobody had believed him at first, but four hours of boredom and uneventful flight, had given credit to his words.
Seifer had liked the fight. It had been dangerous and thrilling and a test of their skills. They already knew that casting magic didn't work, but now it was confirmed that neither Drawing nor trying to summon a GF was any more successful. Eden had resolutely ignored his calls, and Drawing had simply done nothing at all. It was all basic skills after that, and strategy; a good reminder never to become too dependant.
Given the choice, though, he wouldn't readily do it again. But it had still left him feeling more alive than he'd had in a long time. That is, until the dullness sank in.
Vivi had told Squall that the trip would last eight hours. Four had passed, as far as he could tell with no watch and no clock on this sorry excuse for a ship. And he just knew that the remaining four wouldn't be any more entertaining.
Seifer was contemplating taking a nap when he heard footsteps behind him. Bouncy footsteps. He wouldn't have needed to look to know that it was Dincht. There was only one chickenwuss on this ship that could make his walking sound bouncy.
The guy looked lost in thought, which was quite a feat in Seifer's book. And he didn't seem to have noticed him, either. Another surprise.
"What do you want?" Seifer called, his voice immediately catching Dincht's attention. He froze, startled, but it didn't last long enough for Seifer to enjoy it.
"The hell you doing here?" Dincht.
Ah, always so easy to rile up. Seifer smirked arrogantly for his benefit.
"The question applies to you; you're the one who just suddenly came here," he replied quite calmly, and that was always a sure way to make Dincht even angrier.
"I wouldn't have come here if I'd known you were there!"
Seifer raised an eyebrow. "So you're not just dense, but blind as well?"
Dincht growled and bunched his fists together, raising them in what Seifer supposed was a threatening gesture. "Damnit, Almasy! Quit being such an ass!"
"Or you can just stop being so annoying," Seifer countered with a shake of the head, as if he was addressing a stupid, stubborn kid. He felt like he was.
"You're the one that's annoying! Just leave me alone," Dincht huffed, and he resolutely turned his back on Seifer and stalked to the very end of the deck, plopping down sulkily among the ropes.
"Once again, chickenwuss, you're the one who intruded, so I'm in a better position to ask you to leave me alone."
"Shut up, I don't care!" Dincht growled, and he moved as if he was about to jump up again –which would have proven him wrong-, but somehow he held himself back, crossing his arms behind his head and closing his eyes, his scowl still in place.
Seifer chuckled to himself, but he grew tired of the game as well. A pity, since he could not think of another source of entertainment.
Well, he had been thinking of taking a nap, and the chickenwuss seemed to be aiming for the same thing. As long as Dincht didn't snore, Seifer guessed that he wouldn't be too much of a bother.
Settling down as comfortably as he could on the wooden planks, Seifer set to trying to sleep through the remainder of the trip.
When he woke up from his half-hearted doze, it was to the sound of everyone being noisily assembled on deck, looking at something over the left-side railing.
Upon seeing the Alexandria Castle so close, he forcefully told himself that he was not impressed. It couldn't compare to Ultimecia's Castle, after all, even with that tall, blade-shaped thing rising from its centre. Selphie wondered aloud at what it was made of, and he shared her thoughts.
---
Quistis was rightfully curious about the Alexandria Kingdom, but although she wished to visit the sprawling city she'd only glimpsed from above, she guessed that the castle was not such a bad place to start at. They had been asked to wait by that loud, zealous knight that had been there when they landed while Vivi went ahead and warned their Majesties that the unannounced yet surprisingly expected strangers had finally arrived.
She still couldn't fathom how those moogles could travel such distances to deliver mail.
The room in which they had been instructed to wait was modestly decorated, as far as modesty went for a castle. Quistis thought there was just a bit too much drapery and embroidery and gildings to her liking, but then again this whole world was a far cry from what they were used to.
Well, at least they'd brought tea and coffee and small snacks to accommodate them. She didn't have much of an appetite, but she sipped on some tea if only to pass time, watching the others stalk around the room like locked up Coeurls, only waiting for a chance to attack. Well, the men looked that way at least. Selphie standing before the window, exclaiming occasionally about what she saw among the slated rooftops below.
Just then, a commotion was heard on the other side of the solid wooden door. Though the voices were mostly muffled to incomprehensible murmurs, Quistis thought she could make out the voice of that knight she'd forgotten the name of, and a girl's. They seemed to be arguing.
The tension in the room rose a few notches, the group unsure of what an argument could have in store for them. Before Seifer finally decided to open the door and see for himself, it swung inwards to reveal a bright young girl that was quite obviously ignoring the knight's antics.
"Hey! You really are a bunch of weirdoes!"
Quistis couldn't help rising her eyebrows in surprise and amusement. Mostly surprise. The girl was ordinary enough despite her purplish hair, but the small horn protruding from her forehead was far from normal. To her, at least.
"I didn't believe you were real! Mogryo sometimes gets carried away because he loves crazy stories so much," the girl continued, scanning the crowd without an ounce of uneasiness.
"You can't go in! They must be treacherous ruffians, it's dangerous!" the knight at the door complained loudly, gesticulating and causing his armor to produce quite a racket.
"No they aren't! Vivi brought them here and he's ok so they must be as well! Don't you trust him?" the girl countered, placing her fists on her hips and glaring back at the knight.
The man drew himself tall and stiff at her words. "Of course I trust Master Vivi!" he proclaimed, and only realized a beat later that he'd contradicted his previous misgivings.
"See? No problem!" The girl turned her back on the fuming knight, who refused to close the door so that he could keep a watch on them all, and smiled a triumphant and cheeky smile.
Quistis chuckled in her hand. The way that slip of a girl handled the loud knight produced an amusing tableau.
"I'm Eiko, by the way! Pleased to meet ya!" she greeted, drawing herself up to her maximum –albeit still short- height. "Don't mind Steiner too much, he's harmless," she added, and only smiled wider when the man reacted violently at her words, proclaiming loud and clear that he was anything but harmless.
If he knew how to handle that broadsword strapped to his back with enough skill to deserve a commanding position, Quistis believed him.
"What do you want?" Seifer asked, literally towering over her from the top of his six feet-and-something inches. She looked up at him as if she were the one looming over him. Quistis chuckled again. That girl sure had nerve!
"See exactly what got Vivi and his kids so excited. The rumors about you have already reached town, you know?" Eiko moved to the low table in the center of the room and helped herself to some of the small cupcakes. "I heard you defeated a super-tough dragon monster!"
Quistis noticed that Squall was starting to look thoroughly annoyed. Well, it couldn't be helped; Eiko overflowed with energy and had an in-your-face attitude that was bound to grate on their leader's nerves. He'd been very susceptible ever since he'd accepted this mission.
"Vivi helped," Quistis answered smoothly. "He's got very powerful magic."
"Yeah, he's a real powerful black mage! And I'm the best white mage there is!" she declared, fists on hips and puffing her chest proudly.
Steiner hissed a warning about disclosing such information to possible spies or miscreants –he really had an interesting vocabulary when it came to naming criminals-, but Eiko mostly ignored him, stating that it was vastly known knowledge anyways.
"What's the difference?" Selphie asked. She'd turned her back on the windowsill, her full attention now on Eiko.
The little girl goggled at them as if they'd all grown a second head.
"Wow, you really don't come from here!" Shaking off her surprise, she adopted a scholarly attitude that was comical on her. "Black mages use offensive magic, and white mages use healing magic! It's simple! Except for Holy, because that's offensive too, but the Black mages can't use it anyways. And I guess it gets a little weird for the magic that gives status ailments, because that's also considered white magic."
As she said, it really was simple enough. Quistis wondered why both magic types couldn't be mastered by the same individual, if it was because of biological barriers or because of the nature of the magic types themselves.
"Are there white mages like there are Black Mages?" Quistis asked. With her horn, she thought that Eiko might be of a specific race, like the genomes.
"You could say it like that, I guess. But we're not nearly as many as the Black Mages. See, Madain Sari was destroyed and all the summoners died, and summoners are the best white mages there are! Dagger and me are the only ones left now," Eiko's voice had a strange ring to it as she answered.
Quistis hid her surprise by sipping some tea. Summoners? Could that mean that that little girl could summon creatures like they did Guardian Forces..? If that was the case, they were lucky that trying to call a GF had proved as successful as using magic; if they'd succeeded, and if her account of the summoners' extinction was to be believed, they would've thrown themselves in a rightful mess.
For now, their summons were more force to reckon with, more danger, something else this world had that they'd lost.
"Miss Eiko! Don't say such things before strangers! What if they planned on extracting them away again like Zorn and Thorn did?" Steiner was yelling now, bouncing in red-faced consternation. "And you dare mention the Queen and put her to such danger-"
"Steiner!" Eiko turned on him with annoyance, cutting off his tirade. "You're the one who just screwed everything up; they didn't know who Dagger was!" Steiner had the decency to look stricken upon realizing his mistake. "And besides, everyone knows about her summons, so what does it matter if they learn it now or later?"
Once again out of arguments, Steiner could only fume in silence. Quistis could not find it in herself to be amused anymore.
"Eiko, who are Zorn and Thorn? And what did they extract? How?" she asked. Her question picked the interest of the others as well; they were probably following through with the same deduction she'd had.
Eiko looked uncomfortable, and Quistis wondered if she'd touched a sensible or forbidden subject.
"They were evil men who took Dagger's Eidolons from her with some ceremony, and they tried doing the same with me." Her hands went to her chest protectively as she answered.
"Eidolons?"
Eiko nodded, recovering her overly cheery self. "They're the guardian gods summoners can call for help!"
Quistis dubbed them as GFs, then. In any case, that extracting ceremony sounded something like the way they used Draw to take magic and GFs from enemies. Another ability that had failed them upon crashing on this planet.
Before anyone else could question her more, a guard came up and snapped a salute before Steiner, shooting the open room and Eiko a nervous glance.
"Lord Tribal asked to bring the leader of the strangers to him, sir!" the soldier declared, and that easily caught everyone's attention.
"Finally!" Steiner looked at Squall, then at his gunblade. "You'll have to come unarmed," he ordered firmly. Quistis saw the corners of Squall's eye narrow at being told to leave his weapon behind.
Quistis knew him well though, and knew that he'd obey if it was needed. It wouldn't make him happy at all, and that was never good, but that couldn't be helped. She watched as he handed his weapon to Seifer, of all people –she assumed it was based on fundamental trust between gunblade masters- and walked to the door.
Eiko was right there beside him in an instant. "I'll guide you! It'll be more interesting than with this boring guy, and you can tell me more about everything!"
Squall sighed deeply, but the one who spoke first to object was, predictably, Steiner.
"You can't! It's too dangerous; you should let trained soldiers take care of this matter!"
Eiko rolled her eyes and ignored him as she urged Squall down the hall.
"That's stupid! I'm totally better than any one of your puny soldiers! And we're in the middle of the castle, he'd be dumb to try anything now. Besides, he's unarmed and I always have Mog watching over me, so it's ok!" she explained quickly, not giving Steiner any room to reply. He watched her go with an angry scowl, unable to leave his post for fear of what the others might do.
Quistis laughed quietly at the way Eiko could overrule Steiner so forcefully and easily. Squall didn't look so pleased, but it would've surprised her. She came to wonder at who or what Mog was, the Mini-Mog card coming to mind and not easing her growing nervousness.
---
Zidane looked up as Eiko herded the stranger –Squall Leonhart- into the room. Zidane's immediate impression was that he was not happy to be here at this moment. It didn't surprise him, especially when remembering what Vivi had told him about that Squall person and his group of oddballs.
"Thanks for bringing him here, Eiko. I bet you put Rusty in a fit," Zidane said as a way of greeting, smiling wide at the young girl –who was not so young anymore, he had to remind himself- as she gingerly walked to him. She returned his smile enthusiastically.
"You bet I did!"
Zidane felt a momentary pang of pity for Steiner; he only meant well, but Zidane knew from experience how it was when the Commander of the Knights of Pluto didn't trust you, especially around a royal personage.
"You just missed Vivi, he ran off to find Dagger."
"I think I'll go see him, then." Eiko nodded to herself and looked over her shoulder at Squall before returning her attention to the genome. "Don't let that guy bother you; he's silent and moody but really just as soft as Amarant!"
Her bright, cheerful laugh followed her out of the room, not quite covering Squall's exasperated sigh.
"She's a nice girl, it just needs a little getting used-to," Zidane said when the door had closed behind her, scratching his neck sheepishly.
Squall did not speak for a moment. "I can see that," he finally assented in a slow, careful tone. "Are you Lord Tribal?"
"Geez, who said that again?" Zidane muttered. He hated the sound of the title, but there was no way of banning or discouraging its use. It was a small step indeed before he was called king.
Squall raised his eyebrows, as if he took it to mean that Zidane wasn't the named lord. Flapping his hands at his sides, Zidane hurriedly nodded to correct the misunderstanding.
"That's me alright. Just call me Zidane. You're Squall Leonhart, according to Vivi."
Squall nodded, ever careful and wary in his every gesture. Zidane couldn't blame him.
"You look like you swallowed a lemon. Let me guess, Rusty took your weapon?"
He was taking a wild guess, but according to Vivi, Squall was a veteran fighter. Steiner would never have let him come here armed, though Zidane would've preferred it that way if it could have helped Squall feel more at ease. He could defend himself, and had had enough cause in the past to keep the Ultimate Weapon's two daggers strapped to his thighs almost constantly. Nobles got jealous when a nobody, a thief, managed to rise above them.
Squall nodded again; Zidane noted sourly how Eiko had been right about him being silent. Good thing he could talk for two if need be.
"I'm sorry about that. I would've told him not to bother, though I doubt he would've listened. He's stubborn when it comes to his charges' security."
Squall sighed again, and this time he did talk, his voice not so guarded that Zidane couldn't hear the annoyance in it.
"Did you bring me here just to chat?" he asked, staring straight at him with his pale eyes.
Zidane smiled apologetically. "Actually, yes. But sorry, I wandered off topic." Now he became more serious, considering Squall carefully. "I brought you here so that you could tell me your story. I only got bits and pieces from Vivi, and they're already weird." Zidane smiled openly to look less condemning. "Of course, in return you can ask as many questions as you want!"
Squall eyed him, remaining silent long enough that Zidane suspected he wouldn't say anything after all. Then, slowly, he spoke.
"Who are you, exactly? Vivi told us about friends marrying; is that you?"
Zidane wasn't all that surprised by the query in itself, but what caught him off guard was that Squall hadn't been told anything about exactly who they were, aside maybe from holding a noble status. Then again, Zidane was no noble, and wouldn't be, until he wed Dagger and was crowned King.
Uncomfortable with the question, Zidane scratched the nape of his neck nervously, his tail swinging in a broken rhythm around his ankles.
"I'm Zidane Tribal, like I told you. I'm not a lord yet, though people call me that already, but I'll be crowned King once I marry Garnet," he finally explained. It still sounded awfully weird to his ears.
Squall's eyes tightened at the piece of information. "Isn't Dagger the Queen?"
Zidane shook his head. "Queen Garnet, actually. Dagger's just an old nickname." He couldn't help his smile; an old nickname indeed, but the memories tied to it would always remain fresh in his mind.
"Is she a genome as well?"
Ah, so he'd noticed. Zidane was used to people's looks now, and so he hadn't given it any attention. Of course Squall would know about genomes if he'd resided in the Black Mage Village, and finding one here, as the future King, might be a bit of a surprise.
"Nah, she's not. I'm the only genome in Alexandria, as far as I know."
And he'd leave it at that. Squall did not need to know any more of their story for now. The strange man considered all this for a moment, and Zidane could literally see him thinking.
"How do we have to act around nobles?" Squall finally asked.
Zidane was to see Squall ask so many questions, liking it better than the silent wall he'd faced before. It promised a long and interesting conversation, so he flopped down on one of the many simple chairs of the room, flipping it backwards so that he could rest his arms on the back. Squall's latest question was a little strange from his point of view, but he guessed it couldn't be helped; these people were complete strangers to this world.
"Sit. I asked to have some water and wine brought up, it shouldn't be long. We'll be talking a long time, so you'd better get comfortable."
In fact, Squall looked anything but comfortable as he sat stiffly in a chair, but it was a beginning. That done, Zidane started explaining the thankfully simple protocol, and let Squall question him more. The man asked pertinent and precise questions, revealing a sharp and intelligent mind.
Eventually, however, Zidane cut him off.
"Before you ask anything else, I think it's my turn. Tell me your story." He was deadly serious, although he was aware that he would not be getting the whole story.
Squall stiffened slightly. "Let me ask one last thing: what's going to happen to us?"
Zidane blinked, taken aback momentarily.
"Nothing, unless you attack someone or something. You're absolutely free, like every other person in this city. You aren't criminals." It would be unfair otherwise.
Steiner would throw a fit, but although Zidane wasn't a master at politics, he knew that Dagger would agree, and Beatrix would be easily convinced. He had no cause to imprison people that were so far perfectly innocent, or to restrain their movements.
Squall nodded with obvious relief. "What do you want to know?"
"Just start at the beginning."
TBC