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year 5, quarter 3
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Post by Garnet Til Alexandros XVII on Nov 29, 2020 10:37:02 GMT -6
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Darkness surrounded her, and Garnet was alone with only the echo of her heels on invisible steps as she descended further and further into the depths. Her memories were once more cast back to Memoria. There had been a moment when the memories had fallen away, and they had been lost in the endless, inky blackness of the night's sky. There were no stars here, but the feeling was familiar. The feeling that she was approaching something important. She could feel the magic around her. It pulsated through this place, just like it had at Memoria, as if it was a very part of the fabric of the world around her. For a moment, she was worried. What if monsters attacked? The creatures in Memoria had been powerful; too powerful to take alone, but still, nothing came.<p>
And then, slowly, the darkness abated. It disappeared, but gradually. Garnet wasn't sure there was a moment that it was there and then it was gone, it happened so gradually and yet felt so sudden that she wasn't sure if the darkness was just a memory. Her feet now fell on a familiar, luxurious red carpet, and she knew where she was instantly. She didn't have to turn to know what she'd see, but she did anyway, seeing the grand staircase stretching down where she had just descended, no sign of the well, the past, or where she had come from there. She was home, there was no doubt, this was Alexandria. Everything, from the feel of the carpet through her boots to the scent of home in the air; somehow imperceptible, unnoticeable, but unmistakable too, this was Alexandria. Could it be? She couldn't recall how she had come to the strange new world, but could returning be as simple as this? Was she truly... home?<p>
She felt trancelike as she pushed her way through to the balcony, and the familiar site of the city, but it immediately struck her as wrong. She was a Queen, and she knew her Kingdom. Alexandria had been heavily damaged in Bahamut's attack, and while it had been rebuilt, you could see the signs of repair. Garnet was not easily fooled, not anymore, and the city stretching out before her eyes was Alexandria as it used to be. Before the attack. Before her mother had died. Garnet realised that this was home. When she thought of Alexandria, this was the Alexandria she imagined. When she thought, no, when she felt the word home, in her heart, this was the city she saw. Not the repaired Alexandria, not the one that never quite felt right since her ascension to queen, a title that she still wasn't entirely comfortable with, nor Madain Sari, which existed only in her foggiest memories. This. Alexandria, in a time of innocence, before the war, before her mother was corrupted, before all the pain and suffering. This was her home.<p>
But her home was gone. This couldn't be real.<p>
And then she saw her. Her mother. Not Queen Brahne, not the dictator who had brought pain to so many, but her mother. As she existed in her memories. When her mother had been nothing but that, a loving, caring mother. When Garnet's eyes viewed her with a childlike innocence that saw her as perfect. For a moment, her eyes saw her the same way again. All the pain, all the suffering that her mother had caused fell away. She felt her heart skip beats in her chest. She had thought she was ready for this. She had braced herself to see her, to know that this was what this vision might entail, but now that she was standing there, and it all felt so real, she felt her eyes welling up with tears. She wanted to hug her mother and hold her tight and never to leave.<p>
"Mother, I..." Garnet hesitated. Thoughts crossed her mind. Alexandria, this place, it felt so real. Who's to say it wasn't? She had travelled worlds, who was to say the crystal couldn't also send you back in time? Who was to say that this wasn't real? That she couldn't... with the right words, stop everything that had happened? She would never meet Zidane. She would never learn all the things she had learned. But she'd save so many lives. She'd save her mother...<p>
No. This wasn't real. She remembered coming here, she remembered the crystal, being with Tellah and Quistis. She was more certain than ever that this was a test. A trial. One she had to pass for the good of everybody she had left behind. She stood uneasily, but raised her head.<br> "I would like to thank you," she said solemnly, craning her neck up as if to speak to a higher power.. "I... do not know who or what you are, but... you have given me a rare opportunity. To see my mother again. I..." she hesitated, her eyes moving to her mother. They were damp with emotion, but she spoke with determination, every part the Queen forcing out words that she knew had to be said. "Mother, I love you. I miss you every single day. And I shall always remember you. Perhaps in time I shall also forgive you for all that you did. I... do not know. But I do know this, real or not, this is my opportunity to say it, so... I love you. I am sorry that I could not save you. I will... do everything in my power to live up to your memory as Queen. Thank you, for everything you taught me, for all the love that you showed me." She walked towards her mother, trembling a little. Even as she spoke, every part of her body wanted to surrender, to hug her mother, to fall back into being that little girl safe in the place she called home. But she wasn't that anymore. She had to remember it. "I... still do not understand what happened to you. I am... sorry, that I did not see it sooner. Perhaps... I could have stopped it. I could have... saved you from the greed that took your heart but... I cannot change the past, no matter how much I may wish it. I am sorry that I failed you mother, but..." she paused again. "I thank you for the opportunity to say what I could not on the beach that day. Goodbye, mother. You shall always be a part of me. I will carry you in my heart forever." And then, moving with great effort, Garnet turned away, moving back towards the exit. To find a way out. She couldn't stay here. If she stayed any longer, she'd never want to leave, and she couldn't allow that to happen...
Don't know why there's no sun [break]up in the sky. Stormy Weather.
[attr=class,text] Quistis couldn’t help but wonder if the Matron knew something that she did not.Or perhaps, this was an illusory world to be a trial of the Water Crystal. Was this similar to what would have happened on the boats if they followed the lure that tempted them with a special place? [break][break] Quistis felt the urge to be polite when the matron was around and she moved to take a seat. Though Quistis was getting suspicious at not seeing the boys she heard earlier. Softly, Quistis treads behind Matron. The stone pathway is firm beneath her feet, unlike the less sturdy stairs of the temple. “I do have somewhere to be.” Her tone was apologetic. But the flow of this conversation felt strange. [break][break] When they needed help before, Matron did what she could to fight back and in turn, acknowledged that her children could not back down from a fight. And yet, she was asking Quistis to rest. Her brows drew together in concern. [break][break] She looked at the chair offered to her, absentmindedly walking to it. Palm pressed along the backrest, but she did not sit. “To be honest, time compression dumped me in another world. I can’t say I’m doing well. As I said, I may need your help to save this new world.” She squeezed the back of the chair with one hand and pressed a hand to her chest with the other. “As much as I would love to sit here with you, there are others out there that need me to stabilize the Water Crystal.” She thought about the sailors risking their lives on the water right now. The fishing villages and even the mages doing what they could. It would not sit right with Quistis to stand aside and do nothing. [break][break]
“Do you know anything about the Water Crystal? Why does the portal inside the shrine bring me here?” [break][break] DMGarnet Til Alexandros XVII @tellah
[attr="class","tlbody"]Tellah ascended slowly up the darkened stair. The soft sound of harp music urged him ever forward, through the blackened spiral. His legs ached and groaned from the continual effort of climbing the seemingly endless stair but he kept moving forward with a slow, steady pace.[break][break] He couldn’t begin to guess how long and how far he’d climbed when he passed through something frigid like icy water. He shivered at the strange feel and pulled his robes around himself. But almost as soon as the strange watery sensation began, it dissipated. And there, in the distance, hazy light began to form. It blinded his dark-accustomed eyes at first and he stopped his ascent for just a moment and stood blinking into the growing light.[break][break] A soft breeze accompanied the light at the end of the stair. It was gentle and soothing and carried with it a familiar scent of desert sand and dry heat. It brought an ache to Tellah’s heart as memories flooded back. Not of his recent home in Aljana but of his old home long ago, in the small desert village of Kaipo. The beautiful little village where he grew up, where he married his wife and raised their daughter. [break][break] He resumed his walk, pushing past the complaints in his knees and the aches in his feet. The desert wind called him home and the harp continued its wistful melody. He finally reached the end of the stair. A glance behind him revealed nothing but an endless abyss. But before him, something new began to take shape in hazy morning sunlight. The smell of the desert was all around him now. [break][break] Before Tellah’s eyes his old house materialized. His jaw grew slack and his eyes wide as memories rushed back all at once. This house, where he’d lived his happiest years. It looked exactly as he’d remembered as he spun in a slow circle, taking in the magical components and staves cluttering the space. The tools of his craft when he’d been a younger man and a more capable sage. How he yearned to return to this time, to this place. [break][break] And how, mysteriously, he was back. Was this like the strange magic that had taken him to Zephon in the first place? There was certainly magic at work, but perhaps this was reality of a sort as well? [break][break] Once his eyes acclimated fully to the shimmering house appearing around him, Tellah let out a soft cry of surprise and shock. There was someone else in the room with him, someone so achingly familiar. She was dressed, as always, in her favorite shade of yellow. Every detail was just as she had been preserved in his memories. [break][break] The smile she gave him brought tears watering in the corner of his eyes. Her voice, greeting him nearly shattered his heart. [break][break] “Anna!” His daughter, alive and well, not as he had last seen her dying before his eyes. Without a second thought, he moved to her and hugged her. She even felt like how he remembered. Tellah began to think he might have truly been transported to the past. Stranger things had clearly happened. [break][break] And any thought of the water crystal he was meant to find fled his mind at the sight of his daughter.
Queen Brahne says nothing as Garnet speaks. She sits at her throne with her fan, watching over the kingdom. She doesn’t seem pleased though she doesn’t seem displeased either. She is neutral. She is listening.
”It looks like rain.” Clouds have gathered over the city. Despite the previous skies, they’ve arrived as though by command. The double doors shut, leaving Garnet where she stands. ”And you know there’s no exits. You have to know that, don’t you dear?”
The queen rises, taking steps towards the railing. She gives it a horrid look, and fire lights her eyes. ”This was supposed to be for your birthday,” she huffs. ”Your perfect birthday. And then it was ruined.” Thunder like cannonfire bursts from a distant sky. It comes with smoke. The smell of gunpowder. ”We were supposed to have your eidolons! He said we would. On your sixteenth birthday!”
Another round of thunder. Clouds have gathered thick in the sky. Raindrops fall in a misty haze. ”How could I care about a fake daughter who kept her eidolons for herself?”
”My help.” Matron nods as though she understands. ”Yes. I suppose you do.” She looks up to the ceiling as though considering it. ”I don’t think there’s any way out of here. Maybe if we could shift time…”
There’s a flash, hazy, indistinct, of color across her face. Streaks of dark makeup. And then it’s gone.
”But that’s silly. This is before then, isn’t it?” The waves pound against the coast. They’ve grown louder now and more turbulent. The wind is striking.
”The water crystal is corrupted. I believe it’s the power of the fiend. You must be here for a reason. Did it give you any hints as to why?”
Clouds drift lazily over the sky -- setting it in an overcast gray. Edea shakes her head. ”I missed you when you were gone. When I was somewhere else.” She looked at Quistis, her eyes tinged with sadness. ”It’s terrible what he did to you, don’t you think?”
Anna blinks in surprise as Tellah embraces her. Then she lets out a little laugh and hugs him back. ”It’s good to see you too,” she says, smiling as she pulls away. ”You look pale. Did something happen?”
Concern lights her eyes, but it isn’t so strong as to mask their happy gleam. She looks radiant and young, and for a moment she simply smiles at him before she starts with a short, ”Oh!” and moves back to the table. ”I was arranging flowers,” she says. ”Perhaps you could help me?” She gestures to the bundles. Loose flowers all off to one side, another in a vase, and bundles of them placed in a pile and wrapped up in ribbon.
”They’re for the wedding,” she says, beaming at him. ”You’ll be there, won’t you? I'll have to show you my dress.”
Don't know why there's no sun [break] up in the sky. Stormy weather
[attr=class,text] Quistis gave a frown as Edea considered her plea for assistance. But something about it felt mocking, instead of genuine. It felt like something was amiss, much like the missing boys who called for her. And then there was a moment she was no longer Edea...but her. The sorceress from the future reaching back to compress time. The serene setting was now distorting into something darker and she was sure she didn’t like where this was going. [break][break] She stated there was no escaping this place, but Quistis was not convinced. [break][break] “I am here to stop the corruption.” Was that what was distorting the place? What had the crystal told her? Was it the voice that asked her to pray and cleanse these waters with her heart? Is that what she was to do now? “Can you tell me who this fiend is?” [break][break] Was her heart even capable of such a thing? Even when it had not even a bond enough to keep her back in her world? Where she had been lost to time compression? [break][break] A soft frown touched her lips. [break][break] She let Edea talk more and Quistis shook her head. “Who do you speak of?” She had some ideas. There were plenty of men she could imagine did much wrong to her. From students to Balamb Garden faculty. But she always tried to let it go and move forward. She still wished them the best in their endeavors, even if it resulted in her becoming more shy to who she opened up to because of it. “Whatever wrong was done to me, there is nothing I can gain from holding on to it.” She gave a sigh and took a seat. “Once I have cleansed the crystal, I promise to come back for you.” She meant it from the bottom of her heart. “We can catch up then.” A soft and simple prayer born into her heart now. Something to return to. [break][break] She closed her eyes and touched her heart. She wanted nothing but peace for her Matron. The woman who took care of her and sacrificed her own body to protect them from the sorceress. Hadn’t the Matron suffered enough for her sake? [break][break]
[attr="class","tlbody"]His heart was breaking as Tellah held his beloved daughter again. She felt normal, just as she always had. Surely this couldn’t be an illusion, not when it felt so real. This was something else, something like what had taken him to Zephon in the first place. It had to be. It was really happening. [break][break] She seemed concerned about his appearance and he responded with a laugh. “Oh don’t worry yourself. I’m just not as young as I used to be.” If he was truly transported back in time there was no need to try to explain the insanity of his life. No need to explain her death or his new strange existence in a new world.[break][break] Tellah was pleased when the concerned gleam in her eyes melted away into happiness. She was excited to show him her flower arrangements. They were beautiful. Not usually something Tellah would find himself desired to do, but he found himself readily agreeing right now. Of course he’d help his long-lost daughter make more flower bundles. [break][break] Anna explained that they were for her wedding. He felt an immediate jolt of shock. “O-oh, right. Of course I’ll be there. I wouldn't miss it. How is… Edward?” It took all his self-control to say the name without malice. Guilt rose up in him at the thought. His disapproval of the man had, ultimately, caused Anna’s death in the first place. Was this an alternate timeline? One in which he’d never been so needlessly cruel? [break][break] “Remind me again when the wedding is.”
Post by Garnet Til Alexandros XVII on Dec 20, 2020 15:56:10 GMT -6
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And so, the thing pretending to be her mother spoke. Garnet felt her hands tighten slightly. The voice was so familiar, the body, even the smells of the Alexandrian air, Garnet's own perfume mixing with her mother's in the evening cold, and yet, she knew that this wasn't her mother. Garnet wished that she could say it was because the words were cruel, and they were ones that her mother would never use, but she knew that wasn't true. Her mother's evil had been difficult to accept, and easy to forgive. She was, after all, Garnet's mother. But accept it she had. She understood now, corrupted or not, her mother had been behind so much evil, that she really had become the monster people saw her to be. That didn't change the fact that she had once been loving, nor did it change the fact that Garnet missed her, but she would not be hurt by those words. Not here. Not this time.
"You have made a mistake," Garnet said simply, with a nod of her head. "You make a good facsimile, but I know you are not my mother. My mother, my real mother, was a complicated woman, and my feelings for her no less complicated. For what she did to me, for what she did to my friends and the innocents of Gaia... I... carry a lot of hatred. Hatred that is tempered by my love for her and my memories of the good she did. The person that she was before Kuja's corruption. But... you?" Garnet took a step back, craning her head up to look at the falling water. "You are not her. I look at you, and I see, I hear, the monster my mother became, with none of the love. None of the memories. If you really wished to get to me, you should have become her before, not after." Garnet turned back to face her phantom mother, her face wet from the misty raindrops falling, the thunder and dark sky rumbling. "I thought... perhaps... this could help me. That I could say goodbye. That this was a test, and perhaps that was all I needed to do. But I see now that I was wrong. This is not an opportunity. This is not a vision. And you are just another monster."
"I am Queen Garnet Til Alexandros XVII of Alexandria. I lead a kingdom. People depend upon me. I have travelled among my friends and fought battles you will never understand. And you think that you can take the form of my dead parent to influence me? To corrupt me? I'm not the scared little girl I was on my sixteenth birthday anymore. And you. Are. Not. My. MOTHER!" Garnet was almost as surprised as she expected the phantom was when she drew her staff. But it felt natural. In fact, it felt more than that. It felt cathartic. This was a chance to banish the spectre of her evil mother, to fight back against the dark version that had corrupted everything, and leave only the pure. And if not that, then it was a chance for her to destroy something that dared use her mother to try and haunt her. To dare to reach into her memories and bastardise them in that way.
Overhead, she could hear the thunder and the storm, and she nearly laughed. Was that gunpowder, or real thunder? Did it matter? She could smell the gunpowder and the scent of battle. If it was a battle that this spectre wanted, then Garnet could provide that too. She might be alone, but, well, a summoner was never truly alone? "You're bringing a storm? Thunder and lightning?" Garnet asked. "Would you like to see what real thunder and lightning looks like? You want my eidolons? Here's one for you!! JUDGEMENT BOLT!" Garnet reached up into her magical abilities, and extended out. She reached out for Ramuh. She would call him down upon this fake spectre of her mother and eliminate her. She would smash and tear this entire illusion apart. Garnet couldn't remember the last time she had felt so angry to be used like this, but she wouldn't stand by and let it happen. She wouldn't see this thing, whatever it was, pollute her memories. Zidane had taught her there was a time for words, and a time to fight. And her words had run out...
Edea looks at Quistis earnestly. ”The fiend of water,” she says. ”It’s corrupted this place. It used to be so peaceful here, you know. It was a place of power and healing. It’s said that only the crystal would only accept the pure of heart.”
She stops and looks at Quistis. She’s quiet for a long time, and then stands. ”I’m speaking of Cid, of course.” She pushes her chair back and stands. ”Don’t you think it was heartless? Training children as soldiers? Sending my own to kill me? I was a Sorceress, of course, but still.”
Another flicker. Streaks of tribal make-up. Piercing yellow eyes. Then it’s gone, and Edea drifts towards the window, gazing out it to eye the coming storm. The sky bursts with rain that falls in a grey-black veil. The ceiling drips with it, and a stray drop strikes Quistis’ forehead.
”What if you had succeeded that night? In Deling? How would they have felt? Zell? Selphie? Irvine?” Her hands clench, exposing claw-like fingers. ”You’d forgotten me.”
Anna breaks into a warm smile. ”Oh father.” She laughs and gazes at him lovingly. ”Of course you’ll come. I know you don’t like him much, but…” Her eyes trail down to the flowers, gathered in bunches. She presses a few more together, wrapping them in white ribbon. ”It means everything.”
The blinding desert sun fades outside from an onset overcast. There comes the pattering of a light rain. The smell of it drifts through the windows, mingling with the sweet scent of flowers.
”He’s nervous,” she says fondly. ”He keeps saying that you’ll come after him and we’ll have to run away. You can be scary when you want to be, you know.” She ties a neat bow around the stems and sets the bundle aside. ”But he’s sweet. And he plays such wonderful music. I love him.”
She stops. Her hands are frozen on the flower petals. ”Do you think I’m making a mistake?”
The sky is a dark, raging black. Clouds swarm in a kind of thick vortex -- winds raging just as hard as the maelstrom outside the temple’s walls. Rain strikes her hard and fast, soaking into her jumpsuit and weighing down her hair. From the tempest, the great thunderbringer descends. Ramuh gazes down from the sky, and in that moment, his wizened eyes seem to smile. He raises his staff and lightning cracks across the stormy sky.
The visions flash together. Lightning. Eidolons. Alexandria. A great, gazing eye. And then Garnet awakens.
She finds herself in a cramped circular room about six feet in diameter. The walls are made of weathered stone, rising up into darkness. There are no exits. Only a rectangular gap outlining the suggestion of a door, similar to that in the temple’s entrance hall.
The room is rapidly filling with water.
From above, a waterfall has opened, and the water from it is rising, soaking Garnet from her boots to her waist. Another sphere protrudes from the wall, inset with a crystal. It’s like all the others she’s pressed before -- the one that started the boats and the one that gave her entrance to the shrine.
This one, when pressed, opens that sealed section of the wall. The water rushes out, tumbling down slick stone stairs and into a grate at the bottom. Following them leads back to the shrine. The crystal shimmers impassively, setting the scene in its blue-green light. Where three shadows had once protected it, now there stand only two. One is a sleek woman’s figure with a strangely shaped headdress. The other is a woman in a dress with hair reaching down to her waist.
The larger one, the shadow of Brahne, has faded.
The crystal is still inaccessible -- guarded by the two remaining specters. Two new doors are open along the perimeter of the room, their stairs leading up into darkness.
[attr=class,text] Quistis frowned. Pure of heart? Was this it then? Had she been rejected and sent here? She suddenly felt cold nervousness creep into her. [break][break] She looked down at her hands now gripping into the back of the chair. “But when we last talked, it was Cid and your’s collaboration that grew Garden. So that the children trained there could be the SeeDs of the future. To prepare them for the trials you knew they would have to endure.” She had known all this would take place, hadn’t she? So she put a program in place. She took the brunt of the Sorceress’s powers to hold it at bay as long as she could. She even sought to toss away her own powers to prevent Ultimecia from taking over again... But Matron knew she would need a force bigger to deal with the threat. She had only bought the children time. [break][break] “It was a cruel twist of fate.” She agreed. She made quick strides to Edea and grabbed her by the wrist. She bit back her own tears. She had forgotten due to the Guardian Forces. But she remembered now hadn’t she? “Even Cid could not bear to see it through.” So he had forced the burden on them. He put a child in charge and ran away. [break][break] “I don’t know who you are. But the real Edea knew we had no choice. She knew that no matter the trial, we had to follow through.” Quistis would have lived with the guilt, but knew it was what Edea would have wanted to prevent Ultimecia’s ultimate goal. Cid had not been to blame. Ultimecia’s cruel manipulation was. [break][break] “Send me back.” She stated calmly with an edge of severity. As she did with her own students and when she still ran lead on her own mercenary team. Short and commanding. Her hand tightened on the illusions wrist. The real Edea would have wanted her to leave immediately and secure the future for others. Matron was a strong mother figure. Whatever was here was twisting Matron’s image to prey on sympathies. Her blue gaze did not falter. [break][break] DM @tellah Garnet Til Alexandros XVII
[attr="class","tlbody"]She was still so achingly real. Tellah didn’t know if this was a trick of magic, or if he had truly been returned to such a peaceful, wonderful time in his life. But right now, staring at his daughter’s warm smile, he decided it didn’t matter. He was here and somehow, miraculously, so was Anna. That was all that was important to him right now. A father’s deepest wish somehow brought to reality. [break][break] She was talking about Edward. He still felt a twinge of annoyance at the thought of the young man, but it was tempered by their time together with Cecil. Edward had proved himself to truly be a good man, Tellah just hadn’t given him a chance until it was too late. “He is not the man I would have chosen for you,” he admitted. “But it is clear he cares about you. The last thing I want is to lose you.” His voice wavered as tears threatened to come. “I just want you to be happy,” he said earnestly and took her hands in his. “If Edward makes you happy, then you both will have my blessing.”[break][break]
