Celes had never been one to keep to her own business. She should’ve been back in the city helping Setzer earn their keep. She should have stuck to small errands and keeping the peace and giving Setzer some kind of easy peace of mind. But Celes had always been a woman of greater ambitions. She was the type most comfortable in the midst of changing history, and she was hardly the type to follow instead of lead. And so, when she’d heard that there was trouble in one of the villages outside of official protection, she’d left for it without a second thought.

She’d razed enough towns in her life that she couldn’t afford to ignore one in danger. It was all a matter of principle.

Unfortunately, it seemed she was one of the few that shared those principles. She had to duck behind a thicket of trees the moment she came close enough to see them. Bandits. Her eyes narrowed at the sight of them -- hazy in the distance. She could tell who they were by the way they moved -- straight backed, lumbering, projecting the kind of strength only ever put on for show. There were shouts behind that. Scuffles. Celes didn’t know if anyone else had come or where they might be, but she knew a bad situation when she saw one. If the bandits had holed up in this town, then there wasn’t anything she could do that wouldn’t put innocent lives in danger.

Celes felt her jaw clench. It had been far easier when she’d been the invading force.

There was a scream not far away. A child’s scream. There wasn’t time to strategize. Celes bit her tongue and thought hard. What would the others have done? Locke would have disguised himself and tried to slip inside unnoticed, but she didn’t have a chance of managing that. Sabin would have charged in, fists swinging. Edgar would have lingered at the edges, taking them out one by one with his gadgets and tools. But Celes wasn’t charismatic, stupid, or patient enough for any of that. What she needed was a way to draw them out. A distraction. Something flashy…

Celes straightened, clasped her hands together, and ran. Not towards the village, but in the other direction out into the thick foliage. The underbrush caught at her boots as she went, but she kept moving, muttering under her breath as she went. Her magic burned hot in her veins. It simmered on her tongue, and she released it with a sharp cry of ”Thundaga!”

Nearly half a mile from the village’s center, a thick bolt of violet struck down from the sky. It scorched through the air, sizzling like a flame before striking the earth in a violent crash of thunder. Celes winced at the sound, at the heat, and the blinding light that followed. The sky was clear and so was her message. ’Here I am. Come and get me.’ It was bold and more than a little reckless, but she’d rather put her life in danger than anyone else’s. Whatever came at her, she could take it. Maybe she’d even deserve it. But the people in there…

Celes’ grip tightened on her sword as she turned to face whatever might come.

ulla

Another day, another battle.

Celes steadied her sword before her. Her stance shifted almost instinctively. Despite the adrenaline and the panic and the desperation in the air, this was where she felt most comfortable. On the battlefield. Watching her own back. Knowing that every move could end in tragedy. Celes let out a slow breath and willed her fingers to stop trembling. This was what she’d been raised for more or less. To make snap decisions that held hundreds of lives in her hands. To bury conflicts before they could truly arise. Even now, Celes was a soldier in her blood. Even now, she understood the tactics of battle better than the twists of conversation.

The bandits descended upon her exactly as she’d hoped they would -- overconfident, aggressive, and traveling in numbers. She caught at least eight of them emerging from the forest as one, and they hadn’t bothered with caution. In the seconds before she incurred their wrath, she started a low chant that roused the latent magic inside her. It bristled at the edges of her skin and chilled her breath as she exhaled slowly. The spell released without bombast. There were no thunder clouds, no strikes from the heavens, and no crash like the earth itself had caved. No, this time there was only a sharp crack as the heat drained from everything in front of her. Grasses stiffened and then frosted over. The wind carried with it a terrible, biting chill, and at least six of the offending bandits froze solid where they stood and toppled over like off-balance statues.

The rest fled -- or rather, limped -- into the safety of the trees. Celes tensed and side-stepped to get a better look behind her, but no. None of them had thought to circle around while she was vulnerable. Despite their bombast and bloodlust, they really had been just as weak and stupid as childhood bullies. Except, of course, for all the robbery and murder.

Celes sheathed her sword and started towards the town again. Her boots cracked on frozen earth as she crossed her own path of destruction. She’d made the right call, it seemed. Magic was the best way to dispatch them, but she never could have tried something like this when civilians were in danger. They still were, she assumed, back in the main stretch of town. But she’d dealt a heavy blow. Now, she’d need to clean up the rest with more pointed tactics.

Celes’ grip tightened on her sword as she ducked behind the thick trunk of a mango tree. She knelt there in the rotten leaves and listened for the sounds of danger that she knew to be just around the corner. She heard something not too far away. The clink of a sword? And a woman’s voice? Celes took the distraction in stride and charged forward, still half-crouching, into the town itself. The sounds of combat were getting closer.

Whoever was holding off the remaining bandits, she’d find them soon enough.

ulla

Celes was used to scenes of bloodshed. Part of her wondered what it meant that she didn’t recoil at the sight of glazed eyes, purple lips, and torn throats, but another part of her was grateful for it. It meant that she could keep her eyes ahead of her, focused on the task at hand.

Ahead of her, the sound of movement. Voices. There was the woman she’d heard, and then a man -- gruff and on the edge of panic. There was a thud of flesh hitting pavement, a scuffle, the soft schlick of a blade through flesh, and then another heavy thump. Celes paused where she lurked behind a cracked wall, shoulder pressed against the sharp edges of peeled paint as she listened. The woman’s voice continued: ”Lousy brigands. That should never have had to happen. You could have lived a long and prosperous life.”

Celes let out a breath. If there was anything she could have heard to gain her trust, it was that. She gathered her resolve and stepped from behind her cover.

The scene before her was as tragic as it was predictable. Four men, slain and strewed across the ground in pools of blood. Their clothes were ragged -- their skin scarred from years of battle. And standing before them was a single figure: the woman. She had an almost stoic look to her with her short-cut hair and her squared stance. Just from the first glance, Celes knew that she was no stranger to battle. Her armor gleamed in the sunlight beneath a long and frayed cloak.

”Are you hurt?” Celes said and then froze, realizing she might have startled the poor woman. ”Ah, I mean. I’m not with them.” She raised her hands as though to prove it. ”I fought a band of them, actually. You’ll find them stiff as ice in the forest back there. I came when I heard...Well. What happened. I guess I wasn’t fast enough.” Her eyes wandered to the rising smoke in the distance and to what she knew she’d find in those houses. It made her stomach turn.

”Are you from here?” Her gaze snapped to the woman again. ”I know magic. I mean, if there’s any wounded. I can. Well. Help.” For some reason, she felt her cheeks flare hotter the longer she spoke. Where was her usual confidence? ”If they need it.”

ulla

The woman was...off-putting. She wasn’t hurt at least, and she didn’t seem hostile, but there was a definite chill to her mannerisms and an unfriendliness that set even Celes on edge. ’Ice Queen. The word resurfaced from the hundreds of times that it had been used to slander Celes herself, but she couldn’t think of a better time to use it than now. Despite the bloodshed and the lives lost and the unexpected twists of the day, this swordswoman didn’t seem the slightest bit fazed. Celes wondered what she’d been through, how old she was, and whether it was all a mask.

”I’m not from here, no,” Celes answered, but she didn’t care as much about what was being said as the body language between them. The swordswoman might as well have plastered a sign across her forehead reading: I don’t care what you do, just don’t get in my way.

”I’ll...just be over here then. Let me know if you find someone in need of magic. I suppose.” So formal. Pragmatic. It felt almost odd to be the less professional of the two in any conversation. As Celes glanced at the woman and hesitantly started off in search of survivors, she couldn’t help but wonder at how much she’d changed since her more militant days. Not so long ago, she would have relished the silence and the efficiency of pure action. Now she felt just the slightest bit put off at this woman’s purely practical demeanor.

’Not so much as a thank you,’ she thought bitterly as she slipped inside one of the disheveled cottages and glanced through the ransacked crates and clothing and coin purses. ’Hello, it’s a pleasure to fight alongside you. Might I ask your name? I’m quite alright, and you?’ Celes felt her lips purse at the thought.

Had she really gone so soft as to expect niceties on a battlefield?

From somewhere in the shadows, she heard whimpering. Celes froze and looked towards it. ”Hello?” she started and then added, ”I’m not here to hurt you. I can help.” When she received no answer, she started towards it herself only to find...nothing. Just an empty stretch of cottage and walls and slatted wooden floors. She frowned. ”Is someone there?” she tried again, but no. Nothing.

”Hm.” Her instincts weren’t usually wrong, but she supposed she didn’t have time to waste. She gave the room one last sweep before shaking her head and turning to leave.

Her boot caught on debris. She let out a muffled shout as her ankle rolled and she staggered in her heels to keep balance. Celes cursed, gripped the edge of a broken table and looked down. Under the torn cloth and wood dust, something metallic bulged from the floor. A latch.

Celes grabbed her ankle, checked it for fractures (nothing, thankfully), and limped towards the obtrusive thing. It was nearly buried there beneath all of the ruin, but it was unmistakable. Celes took a breath, gripped it, and heaved. The wood bulged, creaked, and then swung open with a painful groan.

There were shouts below her. Gasps. Shuffling. Celes squinted into the darkness and blinked at the shadows there. People, huddled and terrified. ”It’s okay!” she tried maybe a little too quickly. ”I can help! I’m here to help! I came from the city! Do you...Do you want to come out?”

There was a long silence as they stayed there, staring at her. Celes let out a slow breath. She’d lost her sense of authority, it seemed. She was too frazzled. Too uncertain. She needed to find her resolve.

”You’ll come with me.” She spoke slower now. Colder. There was still a general inside of her yet. ”I’ll heal anyone who needs it and we’ll go to the city. Do you understand?”

Silence again. She shot the huddled masses a sharp look. ”Do you understand?”

There were murmurs. More shifting. It would have to do.

”Good.” Celes slowly rose to her feet, taking care to not put more weight than was needed on her ankle. ”Then follow me.”


The victims were scared. Quiet. Ragged. They didn’t trust her, Celes knew that, but they didn’t have to. She’d seen it all too many times before. War orphans. Refugees. The people of the wastelands. Maybe they’d recover in time or maybe they wouldn’t, but Celes had to keep a level head to lead them forward. It was all she could do now. The only thing she could do.

As she reached the entrance to the village, she searched almost instinctively for the swordswoman with the cool demeanor. Even if Celes didn’t like her much, she was the only help there was this far out, and they needed to work together. ”Hello?” she called again, head tilted as she turned in place to look for her. ”Are you still here? Do you...need help?”

ulla