Final Fantasy VI: The Sands of Time
Book 2: The Goddess War
Chapter 11 - Red Tide
Part 11.5 - The Blades of Zwill
When the sun rose, Maduin and Servais were already awake and ready to make for Zwill. Elphis still slept soundly, cuddled in Maduin's huge arm. Kumiro had chosen to ride on Sable, behind Servais, much to his chagrin.
"Sable doesn't usually let anyone but me ride her," Servais said.
"Kumiro has a way with other animals, and I suspect he much prefers a soft saddle to my hard shoulder."
The group headed away from the dark forest and towards the sloping plain where the city of Zwill awaited them. A few miles from the forest, and the city began to appear over the horizon, with nothing but the open sea beyond it. Already, Maduin could see people traveling along the main road, which Maduin had carefully avoided until now, and many small camps alongside it. More Narsillian refugees, no doubt.
"I think this is where we part ways," Maduin said in a low voice. "There are too many people, and I don't want to cause a panic."
Servais looked at him and nodded. "I agree, but let me at least travel ahead and warn Ole Bull that you're coming. You may be able to hide from the common folk, but you can't hide from Ole Bull and his guards," Servais smiled. "I suspect they already know you're coming, but it never hurts to show the proper courtesies."
Maduin agreed. "Stay safe. If what you've said of the city is true, there could be others of my kind lurking nearby...or worse." Maduin didn't need to remind the hunter of their recent encounter with the monstrous Malboro, as vicious and unpredictable as any Esper.
"All the more reason to clear the way for you, then." Servais gave Maduin a short salute, then turned to the moogle at his back. "And as for you, little one, this is where you get off."
"Pah!" Kumiro huffed, and fluttered onto his usual perch beside Maduin's right shoulder spike.
With his usual burst of dust and feathers, Servais exploded straight towards Zwill. He didn't dare fly so close to the city, for fear of a stray arrow shooting him down. Maduin was amazed to see that the giant black bird ran even faster than it flew, and he knew he'd be hard pressed to keep up with it even if he resorted to his magical reserves. Both hunter and mount were impressive sights.
As Maduin's gaze followed the chocobo he noticed for the first time the towering walls surrounding Zwill. It was a port city and center of commerce, but it was isolated and far from any other major nation. Because of this, it needed a proper defense against wild beasts and marauding brigands. The stone wall was certainly nothing compared to Narsille's great mythril gates, but it dwarfed Antissa's feeble pile of rocks. The hellhound Cerberus would not have ransacked Zwill so easily.
Servais had warned Maduin not to use the main gates, but to try and make for one of the side gates. Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, he quickly darted away from the main road, gradually veering away from the main gates as he approached. There were plenty of large boulders strewn across the plain, bleached white from centuries of exposure, and Maduin had no trouble keeping himself hidden as he made his circuitous path to the side of the city.
One oddity that Maduin saw repeated atop every gate and watch tower was a large golden cross formed from multiple blades crossing each other. The five-pointed shape and ruddy-gold color of the cross reminded Maduin of Servais's twin daggers. It seemed the crossblade was the symbol of the city. Whether it was a religious symbol or a coat-of-arms, he had no idea. It was certainly not a symbol used by the Order of the Pearl.
The main reason Maduin was stopping at Zwill at all was the hope that he could find someone of the Order who knew the secrets of the Nacre. He was convinced the Nacre was the key to releasing his friends from the control of the Fallen Masters, and that if the gods wouldn't help him, then the only recourse he had were the remnants of the now leaderless Order. The Order had started all this, and now he hoped they would be honor-bound to see it through to the end. They couldn't all be like Sade. Cassandra was proof of that.
Servais's rumors of Espers besieging the city was another strong reason for him to pay Zwill a visit. Although, without any means of freeing them, he would inevitably be forced to fight them, and he would not slay his friends and fellow Espers if he could avoid it. They may have been born to fight, as the Cassandra-thing had claimed in his dreamworld, but he would not be controlled, not by the gods and their plans, and not by so-called fate. Even if he was alone in his struggle, as he feared he was, he would walk the path of peace whenever possible.
Even Cerberus had fallen to a whim of fate and a twist of a horn, not by Maduin's intent. If Maduin could have, he would have tried to get Cerberus to see reason, but when he remembered the fiercely unrepentant glaze of the hound's dying eyes, he was convinced there was no saving the lost soul. Whatever man he had been as a human, it couldn't have been much better than his demonic Esper form.
No, Maduin would not fight his friends. The power of an Esper was too great, and it was far too easy for one Esper to kill another by accident,and destroy half a town in the process. If it was Bismark or Indie that appeared in Zwill, there was no way he could bring himself to fight them as he had Cerberus. But what if it was Leviathan? Or even Crusader? What then?
The only thing to do was to keep moving forward and meet this "Ole Bull" who was the mayor of Zwill. Only then would he have some answers. Only then would he know what it was he was throwing himself into.
And so Maduin plodded along like a wolf, sneaking around the city walls unseen until he reached a small gate barely large enough for his giant's frame. There were no guards here that he could see, and the weeds spreading between the stones in the road told Maduin this was not a road often traveled. The gate was shut, however. The golden crossblade of Zwill barred his path, each of the blades crossing each other at the middle, blocking the road into the city.
I could break this barrier easily with magic, but that would not be the way to enter and expect a peaceful reception. Elphis could enter with Kumiro, like in the other settlements we've passed, but she is asleep, and I can't wake her...
Maduin stood at the gate, wondering what he should do. Should he just knock? There was a bell next to the gate, but how much did the guards already know? Servais must have long since reached the inside of the city and told Ole Bull everything that had happened. But would this unknown man really let one of the very beasts that were likely plaguing his city pass unhindered?
"Ahem."
Maduin whirled around to face the sudden voice behind him. He had heard nothing, and saw no one. Not even Kumiro had detected anyone. Who...
"So we meet again, Esper."
Maduin was speechless for a moment, the shock of the person's appearance as unnerving as it was back in Antissa.
"You? What are you doing here?" Maduin said, tensing for a fight.
The woman that stood lazily just a few feet from him looked the same as she had in Antissa. Ginger-red hair and blood-red lips, and a sleek black gown with equally black heels. And, Maduin knew from experience, an armory's worth of lethal throwing daggers hidden under that slender guise.
"I'm your welcoming party, of course," the Lady Blunt said with a flick of her wrist. "They wanted to corroborate Servais's story, so they sent me to make sure you were who you said you were."
"And you will escort me into the city, without a, ah, scene?" Maduin did not trust the woman. Not since she had held a dagger to Elphis's throat.
"Of course, you idiot. The only one likely to make a scene here is you. But we won't be entering the city here, where a thousand eyes might see you. Might already have seen you."
"Then where?" Maduin asked. There were no other gates less traveled than this one.
"By boat, how else?" The Lady Blunt raised an eyebrow and turned her head to the west, where the smell of salt and the sound of gulls floated towards them on a chilly sea breeze. "Look, I don't have time to explain everything here. Just follow me."
Without a further word, the Lady turned on her heel and marched away from the gate and down towards the docks on the seaward side of the city. Maduin followed as he was told, but he still wasn't sure if he could trust the woman. Servais had said he trusted her, but could Maduin even trust Servais? He might not openly state it, but Maduin was sure Servais was a Stradivari like the Lady Blunt. And that meant he was a killer, too.
How many men have you killed, Servais? Surely you don't only hunt beasts, Maduin thought sadly.
When Maduin reached the stone docks of Zwill, seemingly endless in their ordered rows stretching for over a mile, he was duly impressed. There were more ships here than all of Narsille. True, they weren't the sleek Narsillian cruisers, but they were sturdy vessels one and all. And now that Narsille was gone, they were the most advanced ships on the planet by default.
He had heard the stories of Zwill's standing navy, stories claiming it was the greatest in the world, but never believed them. Few of the cloistered Narsillians ever believed there was anything better than their grand city outside those shimmering mythril gates. As Maduin watched the morning sun reflect off a thousand decks, he wondered if Narsille wasn't quite as perfect and glorious as he had been raised to believe.
One ship in particular stood out among the rest to Maduin's dazzled eyes. It wasn't larger, or more heavily armored. It bore no signs of cannon, and did not appear to be a warship at all. What it did bear was a beautiful woman carved into its prow, and the mark of a loving shipwright who cared more about the simple majesty and quiet grandeur of wood and cloth than metal and gunpowder. It was the ship of a true man of the sea. Maduin had only seen one ship like that.
"Could it be?" said Maduin as the Lady Blunt headed towards the strangely familiar ship. "Is that the Maiden of the Sea?"
The Lady's rough laugh rose over her bare shoulder as she strode down towards the southern edge of the docks. "The only Maiden of the Sea around here is that ship's captain. No, that is the Mother of Pearl."
"It looks exactly like Captain Bismark's Maiden...,"
"That is because they were built by the same person."
"The Captain claimed he built his ship himself, plank by plank and nail by nail." Maduin knew the story well. Bismark loved talking about his ship. He had never had a wife, never had a child. The sea was his lover, and the Maiden was his daughter. That was enough for the salty old captain, or so Maduin had always believed.
The Lady spared a pitying glance back at Maduin. "Your Captain doesn't like to talk about his past does he?"
That was certainly true. Maduin nodded suspiciously. It was unlikely this woman knew more about Captain Bismark than himself, and it offended him when she acted like she did. The old man was tight-lipped about his personal life, but Maduin was like a son to him. Or at least, Dune had been. Now, neither of them were who they once were.
"Hm. you think you know best, right?" The Lady turned her gaze back to the approaching ship. "Well...you probably do on most accounts of your captain. But when it comes to the these two ships, we know more than anyone."
"We?" Maduin frowned. "You mean your group, the Stradivari."
"Of course. The captain of the Mother of Pearl is one of us. She built the Mother of Pearl. Her and your captain together. And then she helped him built his vessel. A labor of love, you could say." The Lady laughed her little laugh.
"He never mentioned another ship, or a...woman."
"Did he ever mention the women of his past?" the Lady asked, as if she already knew the answer. "I never met the man, but from what Captain Delphino says, that wasn't his style."
"No, it wasn't. But...!"
"But what? Your precious Captain didn't spill his guts about every little heartbreak in his life to you, and now you're offended? Or what, you think I'm lying?"
Maduin could feel his blood burning as the woman spoke to him. He did not like the Lady Blunt, but she was right. Not once in all the years Maduin had known the Captain did he ever once mention anyone from his past. Maduin hadn't known that Captain Bismark was friends with Indie or Alex, hadn't even known who Jonah Levi was until fate had thrown them all together again. His father was the only person Bismark ever admitted to knowing, and even then it was Indie who told him the story of his father's death, not Bismark.
"No, you know I'm telling the truth. Your captain had a life beyond you, believe it or not. As he grew older he gave it up for the call of the ocean, but he was young once."
Hard to believe. Maduin couldn't help but grin at the thought of a young, love struck Captain. But, she was right. Everyone was young once, even Captain Bismark.
"But that doesn't matter now," the Lady said, abruptly turning on her heels to face Maduin. "We're wasting time talking about these things. Right now, you need to meet my Captain, and she will decide what to do with you until Ole Bull sees fit to drag his fat ass out of his mansion."
"Is this entire city run by the Stradivari?" Maduin wondered.
"This city is run by a faction of merchants, each representing various powers from various lands. Ole Bull is the mayor, but he holds little real political power in Zwill. Running nations openly is not the Stradivari way."
"No, you slip daggers into the backs of troublesome lords in the middle of the night, right?"
The Lady smiled, her red lips glistening a little too brightly in the sunlight. "If the price is right."
"You sicken me," Maduin said simply. It was a strange feeling. He loathed the Lady Blunt, but he had great respect for Servais. Both were Stradivari, but they were as different as night and day. What would this Ole Bull be like? Would he be a bloodthirsty killer like the Lady, or a gallant hunter like Servais? And what of this mysterious female captain? A woman strong enough to capture Captain Bismark's heart was no one Maduin wanted to anger.
"I would be worried if I didn't, Esper," the Lady answered, her smile unwavering. "A mind like mine, in a body like yours...," she fingered the subtle bulge of a dagger's hilt just barely visible between the swell of her breasts. "We would definitely have to do something about that, wouldn't we?"
"You don't have to worry. I am not like you."
"But what of her?" The Lady's eyes wandered down to Elphis's sleeping form, still nestled in Maduin's arm. "She is a natural born fighter, I can sense it. Oh she hates me, but there is plenty of room in the Stradivari. Room for many different kinds of people..."
"Elphis will never join you. I'll make sure of that."
"Pu." Kumiro's pouting face popped up beside Maduin's.
"We will see." The Lady suddenly looked bored. "Enough. The Mother of Pearl is lowering her rigging. You can board from the side, so no one sees you. I'll board from the dock, like a lady should. You can swim can't you?"
For an answer, Maduin simply leapt from where he stood, soaring low over the water and straight past the rigging of the ship. With one clawed hand he grabbed the side of the ship, and stepped quietly over the railing and onto the ship. He made sure to land behind a large pile of crates and barrels so no one would notice a sailor that was just a little too tall to be human. His movements were so careful and gentle that Elphis never stirred in his arm.
"Hmph, as you will," was the Lady's only response. She carried herself across the dock and onto the ship with the grace of a queen, and stood silent and apart from the other sailors on the deck while she waited for the Captain to send word for them.
Maduin said nothing to her, and nothing to any of the sailors running around him. If they saw him, they paid no notice. He found their tacit acceptance of his monstrous presence unnerving. But then, the Lady Blunt had not minded his appearance, and Servais showed little fear of him either. The Stradivari were made of tougher stuff than usual people, Maduin had to admit.
After a half hour of strained silence between Maduin and the Lady Blunt, an older man came running up to the Lady. He looked once at Maduin, half-hidden in the shadows of the cargo, then back to the Lady.
"The Captain will see you now," was all he said, then he vanished back inside the ship.
"Shall we?" the Lady said merrily, replacing the dagger she had been twirling impatiently while she waited back into the endless folds of her black dress. In a moment she, too, vanished inside the ship.
"Ah, Kumiro, what viper's nest are we walking into?" Maduin sighed as he ducked passed the arch of the door and into the bosom of the Mother of Pearl.