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Final Fantasy VI: The Sands of Time

Book 1: The Beginning

Chapter 7 - Confluence

Part 7.4 - Beauty and the Beast

Within a few days of the coming of the storm to Narsille, the normally bustling streets of the city had quickly thinned to an urban desert. Even a few moments of rain were unheard of inside the city walls, and many of its citizens had never even seen rain before. As the minutes turned to hours, and the hours into days, the people began to panic.

The thick billowing clouds blackened the sky above like some sort of perpetual eclipse, brightening only during the occasional flash of lightning. Many people were convinced the world was coming to an end. No one dared leave their apartment towers unless they absolutely must, and the only vehicles on the roads now were the automatic buses that silently drifted through the city like ghosts, with no pilots or passengers. The only sound in the air was the constant patter of rain and the dull thud of distant thunder, echoing down between the tall buildings that made up most of Narsille. It was a somber welcome to the city of dreams by day, as Draco had seen it when he arrived. By night, it was terrifying.

It was night now, and one lone person was struggling through the empty valleys between the mile-high apartment towers. It was a woman, covered in a wet hooded cloak from head to toe, and looking bewilderedly from tower to tower as she stumbled from one street corner to the next in a state of reverse-vertigo. She felt like an ant in a land of giants as she peered through the cold rain at the cloud-hidden tops of the towers, reeling at the scale of the city. Her homeland was nothing like this!

She slowly worked her way from one forbidding building to the next, pounded on every door she could find. Most were locked tight and silent as graves. The ones that were answered were usually towers with shops and offices at their bases, a common sight in the densely packed city. Despite her pathetic appearance, no one would let her stay inside. Fear had gripped this city tight in its claws, and a person like her appearing on a night like this was surely a bad omen. Some people actually yelled at her, terrified that she was some sort of ghost, and that the city had fallen one step further into hell.

But one equally lonely soul had finally relented to the woman's cries. A door opened, and an angry bespectacled face shot out from it, wasting no time berating the poor woman.

"What is it, then? Who are you to bother me at this ungodly hour? You had better be dying from some grievous head wound to come wailing around my office at this time and in this weather. Well? You've got my attention, so out with it!"

The woman was breathing heavily with fatigue, and spoke with effort between gasps. "Kind sir, I am a stranger in your land, and I am in need of assistance. Please, sir! Let me stay here tonight! I am heavily pregnant, and need to rest somewhere, anywhere out of this storm!"

The woman first put her hands to her stomach, where a large bulge showed just beneath her cloak, then she pulled back her hood to look the man in the face. Her face, even in the dark, wet night, seemed to shine with an inner radiance. Her long golden hair, not the least diminished by the rain, framed a snow-white face with the strong features of a noblewoman. It was the face of an angel. It was the face of Maria Chere.

The surprising beauty of the face startled the angry man and his glasses nearly fell off his face in shock. He stood spellbound for a brief moment, then slicked back his now wet hair and gestured her inside. It was grey hair, short and neatly kept, but the face was the sharp handsome face of a young man no older than thirty. It was not a kind face, but the sudden appearance of this distinctively non-Narsillian-looking woman softened it considerably.

"Pregnant? Why on earth are you out of bed? Are you crazy, woman? Get out of those wet things and lie down on this!" The man spoke harshly, mostly out of habit, but also because this woman was having a curious effect on his temperament, and he was growing uncomfortable. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other as he glanced awkwardly at the cloaked figure standing in his office.

"I thank you, good sir," Maria said wearily as she shed her cloak, now dark and heavy with rain water. Beneath the cloak she wore only a white dress of Jidorikian make. It was made of finely woven silk and designed personally for her during her pregnancy. It fit snugly across her bosom, but loosely around her growing waist. She wore only thin slippers on her feet and carried a small handbag at her side. Inside the bag were all her worldly possessions now in this place.

"My name is Maria Chere," Maria spoke after the man had eased her into a nearby cot. "I am traveling from Jidorik to see my husband, who is here in your city as we speak. Or so I hope. He does not know that I came here, and I fear he is in danger. I could not bear to sit at home and wait for him like I did before, not knowing if he was alive or dead, so I made the journey here to be at his side...only..." she paused and blushed, embarrassed by her confession to this stranger.

"Yes?" The man urged her on. He was surprised to find that he wanted to hear more, that he wanted to hear her voice. It was a mesmerizing voice, rich and full of intelligence and strength, unlike the tired, apathetic voices of Narsille that he was accustomed to hearing throughout the day. Normally he only half-listened to what his patients told him, but this woman was having a strange effect on him. It was something he had not felt for a long time, if ever at all. Was it attraction, or perhaps just real appreciation for another human being he could talk with?

"Only...I lost my way in the city," Maria continued quietly, suddenly aware of her foolishness. "Your city is like something out of a dream! I never imagined such places existed in the world. I am sorry to say I was not prepared for it."

Now the man grimaced slightly. "Oh yes, this is quite the city all right. A city of fools and layabouts! Strangers typically find our wonderful city breathtaking at first, but they never seem to want to live here. You'll see soon enough, I suppose. There's something dead about our city, as if no one really cared about what happened in it anymore, as long as they get their pay and their warm food and houses. A person such as yourself, Maria was it? A person such as yourself, Maria, does not belong in a den of indolence like this. You seem to me to be a person of a much higher station in life. Why, you look like you could be a queen sitting here in an outfit like that."

The man stopped and looked furtively away from Maria, and Maria did the same at the mention of the word queen. He felt like he had said more than he intended, both about the city and the woman. "Ah, forgive me, I have not even introduced my self. My name is Atma, Dr. Atma. I am a medical doctor here in the city, although I enjoy taking as many business trips away from this place as I can. You were lucky to find me in tonight."

"I am in your debt, Doctor. I know I am in no condition to travel but..."

"Yes, yes, love and all that," Atma finished, not completely unkindly. "People have done more foolish things for the ones they love, I suppose. Here, lie back and let me look at you. Our city may not have the greatest inhabitants, but our medical technology is second to none. I doubt you've had anything more than shamans and midwives looking after you back home. Let me give you a proper work up and see where we stand, eh?"

Maria could not help but smile at his coarse words. He was more right than he guessed about the shamans and midwives. She, a queen, felt like a regular country bumpkin here in this sterile white room filled with more devices and chemicals than she could ever identify, and she bet her own doctors back home wouldn't be able to guess at their purposes, either.

"You don't need to worry about me, Doctor. I am already far too much in your debt as it is, and I would not want to keep you here all night looking after me."

"No matter, it is a quick procedure. The machines do all the work. I just turn them on and wait. Here, just relax and let me work, alright?"

Before Maria could protest further, Atma had wheeled a large box-like machine over to her and pulled out an object attached to it that almost looked like a weapon. Maria tensed at the site of the object, but the doctor reassured her.

"Heh, don't worry, it won't bite. This machine will let me look at your child and see how he is doing. It's called a sonogram, and it is not dangerous. I think you'll find this to be quite an enlightening experience. Now hold still while I run the transducer over your stomach. Ready?"

"Yes doctor." Maria said obediently. She did not really understand what he meant by looking at a child that was inside her, but she trusted him.

Atma took the strange-looking object in one hand and rubbed some sort of thick jelly on her stomach with the other. Maria had no idea what to expect, but as he placed the object on her and moved it across her belly in practiced motions, she felt at peace. She had made it here safely, somehow. And now she was in the hands of a doctor like nothing she could ever find in Jidorik, and soon she would be know whether her child was safe as well. She had gotten lucky, and she knew she was blessed to be here right now and not still outside, where she would probably have collapsed cold and alone by now.

After a moment Atma motioned towards the machine and told her to look at the screen sitting on top of it. She did not know what she was looking for at first, but slowly her eyes pieced the strange vision together. She saw a bean-shaped blob in black and white with vaguely familiar features poking through it. Fingers, toes, something that looked like a face, a leg...and then it came to her what she must be looking at.

"Oh!" She gasped reflexively. "That's...my baby, isn't it? How...?" Maria was speechless. This was surely magic!

Atma chuckled, reading her thoughts. "I'm sure it looks like magic, but it is just science. Nothing more than waves of sound and electrical impulses. The real wonder here is that you are carrying twins, Ms. Chere."

"Twins?" Maria gasped. Now she saw it, though. Not one face, but two. And four hands, four legs. She could see them moving slightly. One of the mouths opened in a tiny, perfect yawn. This city was so full of wonder she had trouble seeing what the doctor obviously hated about it.

"Yes, you are carrying two healthy babies. One male, one female. I'd say you're about six months along, am I right?"

"Yes...," Maria said breathlessly. Twins...a baby boy and a baby girl...her heart fluttered at the thought, and she imagined Draco's face when he heard the news. Twins were considered a good omen in Jidorik. It was a sign that the family line would continue for many generations to come.

"I see that you are a little overwhelmed. That's understandable even for a native Narsillian receiving the news that they are having twins. But twins can be dangerous births, even here in Narsille. I strongly suggest you stay here until it is time to give birth, and let one of our doctors deliver the babies. Forgive me for being blunt, but your homeland is not equipped to handle multiple births like we are, and I would not risk traveling back there now. Is your husband planning on staying here for a while?"

Now Maria realized the depth of the situation she was in. Draco would not, could not stay here for that long. He would have to get back to his people and be crowned properly as King. Another usurper like Ralse could come along in that time and destroy everything they had created. But the doctor was right, she knew from the other wives how uncertain twin births could be, and more than half of them had lost both children in childbirth. She shuddered in fear for her unborn children, and for the uncertain and difficult future she knew she had thrown herself into.

"I don't know what I should do...my husband must return to his kingdom soon, he cannot stay here, even for me. Oh, I shouldn't have come!" She put her head in her hands and began to weep.

Atma was stunned out of his professional mask, and dropped the transducer-object to the floor. He was accustomed to all sorts of displays of emotion, of course. A doctor saw people at their most vulnerable. But now...he felt like he was the one that was vulnerable, and was unsure what to do. Here was a beautiful woman like something out of a fairy tale, weeping at his side! He almost wished that she hadn't have come here, as well. He was not used to feeling uncomfortable around his patients, but she had somehow worked her way past his external wall, either through the bizarre circumstance of her arrival, or her almost otherworldly aura. With an extreme effort, he put his arm around her and tried his best to comfort her. Her shoulder was warm, and her hair smelled like exotic flowers the likes of which Atma had never known existed.

This was turning into one of the strangest nights of Atma's life. After this experience, he felt he just may have to leave Narsille for good. If this heavenly figure was what the people outside the walls of this detestable city were like, then he had been missing out. Atma only knew of the battlefields outside of the city. He had never traveled beyond its walls for pleasure. But here, now, this was pleasure. This woman had sparked something inside of him that could not be ignored. The city of dreams be damned, it was time Atma expanded his horizons and saw the dreams of the rest of the world. But not until he had safely seen to the birth of this woman's twins. Atma only hoped the storm outside didn't drown them all before then.

He continued to hold the weeping Maria, and the storm continued to rage on outside.