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Post by Clive Rosfield on Jul 30, 2023 8:31:37 GMT -6
THE OUTLAW
Zephon, she had called it. Not another land, but another world. And apparently there were hundreds, possibly thousands of others.
It would seem unbelievable if it didn’t line up. He had accessed Ultima’s power. And all the consequences that came of it. He had thought it meant his death, but… What if the last of it had saved him from the Curse and sent him here, combined with the remaining power of the Eikons that he’d absorbed? They were all gone now, save the Phoenix’ blessing and Ifrit. And even Ifrit, he could no longer feel. Only what remained. Had they sacrificed that connection to spare him and bring him here?
This woman had no idea what he’d been talking about and neither had anyone else. This Torensten wasn’t on a single map he could recall, and was far too large for such a glaring omission. The Bearers here, they weren’t branded. They were…
Free?
She ran a mercenary band. A bearer. That ran a respected band who was on call by the King himself for assignments. And the mages he’d seen weren’t slaves, they had jobs. Damn good ones too. No brand, no forced servitude, just…
It was everything he had ever wanted, but…
It just sounded too good to be true.
The rest was heard, but wasn’t the focus at the moment. He’d parse that information later, as his gaze focused solely on the crystal.
Clive sheathed his blade as he slowly advanced towards Celes and the crystal. However, he placed a hand firmly on Celes’ shoulder.
“I will not destroy the crystal just yet. Of this, you have my word,”
If allowed, he would place a hand on the crystal. He had absorbed Ultima’s power once. While he no longer had it, he remembered what it felt like…
And yet…
Even as he closed his eyes, even as he pressed his head into the crystal, trying to find something, anything. Not a trace of Ultima could be found. And stranger yet…
“What…?”
This crystal was indeed absorbing aether as the mothercrystals did. But the amount… It wasn’t absorbing nor was it emitting anywhere near what the mothercrystals had been doing. Nowhere near enough to either turn those around it akashic, nor…
Nothing like this existed in Valisthea. The mothercrystals had been of Ultima’s design, to take far more aether than humanity could ever use on its own, spreading the blight from the lacking aether of the realm. All while Ultima absorbed the excess for his own designs. This crystal wasn’t like that. It was everything that had led humanity to rely on magic, which was still dangerous, but…
She was telling the truth.
This wasn’t his world. It was very possible that everything he had ever known in his life so far, no longer existed here. It also meant…
If he truly had been sent to this world, perhaps by what he had done with Ultima’s magic… Then they had succeeded.
Which meant he truly had stormed in here, and put these people at risk who may very well have done no harm, and who didn’t deserve to have their crystal destroyed. He didn’t know enough yet to say. But he did know that the blight was no longer a threat. Ultima was no longer a threat. For now, at least. He had inconvenienced them for nothing.
… It also meant he could never get back to Jill and Torgal, or even Joshua if he was still alive.
“Shit” he found himself muttering as he pulled away from the crystal. What did he do now? He didn’t know. And as happy as he was to find a world like the one he had dreamed of, and that they had successfully stopped Ultima, all he felt was…
Empty. Devoid of purpose. He had been content to die doing what needed to be done. Now he was alive, but couldn’t even live in the world he had sought for. This world was nice, but…
He didn’t belong here. If those he loved weren’t here, this wasn’t where he belonged.
“Go. Heal them. I surrender.”
With a slight hesitation, Clive gently and respectfully laid down both his and his father’s sword. “If I need be tried and executed for what I have done here, so be it. Have your justice. If Ultima is gone, I do not belong here.”
“I don’t think that will be necessary.”
A group of soldiers filed in, some moving to escort the wounded while others remained as King Hremit entered the chamber.
“I overheard some of what’s been said. It appears your intentions were righteous… Albeit with damaging results. But I have no reason to do you harm. You are free to go, so long as you do not continue to cause trouble. Though if you wish to pay back the damage you’ve caused, I’m sure we can come to an arrangement. With payment for anything beyond what you owe, of course. You’re a swordsman, and Torensten, as Miss Chere has mentioned, is abundant with monsters. I’m sure that a man of your talents will have no trouble paying it back, if you so choose.”
While he was a laid back leader with a froggish complexion, Celes had been right about one thing. The lad was strong. It would be foolish not to take the opportunity presented.
Clive stared at the king, eyes struck with bewilderment. What was he playing at? At the least, Hremit seemed to sense that distrust.
“Torensten has been protected by outlanders like yourself for many years now. The least we can do is try to help those that are struggling when they arrive.”
With that, he looked to Celes.
“Miss Chere. You have my sincerest thanks for protecting the Crystal. The Dragonblades continue to be the shining star of our city with people like you at its head. I will ensure that you and the Dragonblades are thoroughly compensated for your aid.”
Had he heard Celes screaming about not being paid enough? Oops.
With that, he returned to the “maniac”.
“What is your name, lad?”
Clive was… Well, honestly he didn’t understand what was going on. There had to be something underlying here, right? Of course there was. The man had made it clear he wanted to make use of Clive’s power, as any ruler would want to. But his reasons… They were simply out of gratitude for people like her? Miss Chere, he’d called her. A Bearer. A heroic Bearer who commanded the respect of the King to the point he would spare and, in a sense, offer aid to a Bearer in getting back onto his feet when all others would have executed him for what he had done.
It felt so alien. So hard to believe.
This really was another world, wasn’t it?
Taking a deep breath as he picked up his swords once more, he considered what to say. Normally, he would go by Cid, but…
Their mission was over. It was time to let Cid and his legacy rest.
“… Clive. From a world called Valisthea.”
He took a deep breath, knowing he was taking a risk here. But he’d taken risks for most of his life.
“I suppose I owe an explanation. My world was plagued by a Blight that turned the land barren and uninhabitable wherever it touched. Caused by Mothercrystals, sources of magic that all our nations relied on in their daily lives, as it drained the aether from our world. But worse than the Blight, was the people. They saw magic and those who used them as tools. People with magic were called Bearers, and at discovery of their magic were branded.”
Clive motioned towards the scar on his face to give them an idea.
“Laced with wyvern poison, making it almost impossible to remove without painfully killing them. Bearers were slaves. Tools to be used. Treated like garbage, and just as disposable. All while nations fought entire wars over control of the mothercrystals, and conscripted Bearer slaves to fight and die on the front lines. Bearers were looked down on even beyond that, some hunted them for fun, burned them, hanged them, strung them up. My own mother had an entire village slaughtered for trying to harbor Bearers, and strung them up to make a statement.”
Clive didn’t talk at length much, but… They did deserve to know why he had shown up to crack the crystal.
“Cid had a dream. Freeing bearers from their chains, letting them live and die on their own terms. And… To destroy the mothercrystals and end this seemingly endless war over them. And all the atrocities that come with it. We later found out they were created by Ultima, our world’s… God, you could call it. They were made to take aether, more than any man could use, and with what was collected fuel one of Ultima’s clones to return and cast a spell. One that would rob all of humanity of their free will.”
He cocked his head towards the Crystal. “When I was sent here, we had just stopped Ultima. I was convinced that this crystal had one more of his clones, and destroying it would put an end to our struggle for good. But I was wrong. And for that, you have my apologies.”
He knew that didn’t mean much. He had nearly killed half a dozen men. But they at least deserved to know why.
Final Fantasy VI
22
YEARS
Female
Complicated
Heterosexual
429 POSTS
Fin
Use your own eyes and see for yourself whose side I'm on!
[attr=class,bulk] Celes couldn’t read the expression on the man’s face. He only had eyes for the crystal, and Celes had no idea what that meant. She suspected the worst, but after a long, terrible moment he finally sheathed his sword.
And then he put a hand on her shoulder.
Celes almost flinched away on instinct, but stopped herself under the weight of that hand. She stared at him, bewildered, as he promised he wouldn’t destroy it.
”You…won’t…?” She wanted to ask why exactly when he’d been so dead set on it before. Had she really convinced him? With that pathetic excuse of a rambling argument? If so, he must have been quite easy to persuade. She wasn’t used to her words having more of an effect than her sword.
But he was true to his word. She let him approach the crystal only because she didn’t think that she could stop him and watched suspiciously as he placed a hand upon it. She had no idea what he’d expected to feel from a hunk of magic rock, but whatever it was, he apparently didn’t. He cursed and stepped away, seemingly no longer hostile, but Celes did not sheathe her sword as he had. It was better not to lower her guard with someone so unstable.
”Go. Heal them. I surrender.”
”What?”
Celes watched almost in horror as the man placed his swords to the ground in defeat, submitting to trial and potential execution. ”Have your justice,” he said. ”If Ultima is gone, I do not belong here.”
”I…But…What?”
Celes, for not the first time in her life, had absolutely no idea what to do.
She didn’t have long to think, however, before another voice made her jump nearly out of her skin. She bared her sword, whirling around to face the new intruders to find…guards. Castle guards. Celes bristled with irritation (hadn’t she told them all to evacuate) before noticing the man they escorted. It was an older man, balding in places, clad in the finely crafted silken robes of nobility. Though Celes had never seen this man before in her life, she recognized him instantly from his statue in Legend Square.
King Hremit looked a lot less appealing when he wasn’t carved from stone. He looked frailer, fatter, and more than a little toad-like.
”What are you doing here?” she asked furiously before realizing that perhaps pointing her sword at a king wasn’t her best idea. She lowered it, lips pursed as she tried to hide her displeasure.
Because, really, what was he doing here? She knew she had no military authority here. She knew that, but she’d demanded that the castle guard evacuate. If she hadn’t by some miracle managed to talk the swordsman down then who knew what would have happened? A lot more men would have died, that was for sure, along with their king if he’d truly been lurking close enough to eavesdrop. The mad swordsman had seemed particularly furious at Torensten’s leading body.
The king spoke of said swordsman’s righteous intentions and said that he was “free to go” so long as he “didn’t continue to cause trouble.” As though the man had been a mere thief instead of a killer. Is this what the king thought was just? A light slap on the risk for attempted murder of his own guard?
Apparently so as long as it kept the king in the good graces of a man of his talents. Oh yes. Who could resist having a man of such amazing talents indebted to them? Celes would have. Even the mad swordsman looked distrustful of him.
Celes let the king speak. She knew politics. She’d stood at the left hand of her emperor for years as their prized weapon of war. When the king thanked her and thanked the Dragonblades and offered them thorough compensation, she merely hummed in response. The king could shower them in riches, and it wouldn’t change a thing. It wasn’t as though he’d submitted a personal job request to be processed in line with all the others. The Dragonblades had sworn to respond to disaster, that was all. She wasn’t on the king’s personal payroll, and she didn’t plan to be. In fact, she found it almost insulting how she dangled such compensation above her head.
All the better to keep the Outlanders pleased, wasn’t it?
Celes didn’t look up until the mad swordsman began to speak.
His name was Clive, apparently, from a world called…
’As for the world, we all called it Valisthea. Or, you know, ‘the world’ given that we only thought we had the one.’
Her eyebrows furrowed. She’d heard that name before.
She didn’t remember all of the names that Mid had told her. There had been a lot of them – even more when apparently half the people on Valisthea had about five names each – but that’s why she’d written them down in a list she’d left back at the Rest. That aside, while Clive’s story didn’t make much sense to her and had about as much gibberish in it as anyone else’s, it certainly sounded familiar. She watched him carefully, trying her best to align his story with the half-sensical ramble from Mid only days before.
It couldn’t be a coincidence. Could it?
As much as the king had dismissed her with the promise of his “compensation” and Clive had dismissed her to go heal who she could, this had to be her problem now, didn’t it?
Damn it all.
”With all due respect,” she said, stepping forward without being bidden. ”Are you really going to let him walk free? These people…” She gestured at the bleeding, unconscious men piled at the wall. ”Men sworn into your service are hurt or dying or maybe even dead because of him! And you’re not even going to imprison him to wait for trial? There are families that right now are waiting for some of the worst news of their lives!”
Perhaps she wasn’t in the mood to be quite so respectful, after all.
”Well. If you won’t do it then the Dragonblades will.” She closed her eyes, let out a short huff of a breath, and opened them again, her eyes sharp on the so-called king. ”If you could take him for the night so that I can go about helping with the healing effort, I’ll come to pick him up in the morning. We’ll take him under our watch and our custody. We might be the only ones who can stop him if he decides to get confused again.”
She’d had enough of weak men and weak leaders. She’d had enough of politics and war efforts and kings who cared more about their own maneuvering than the lives of their people. As a soldier herself, she’d had enough of seeing their sacrifices for a nation who couldn’t care less for their lives.
”I think one of our newest hires might know him, anyway. She’ll tell us if he can be trusted while he cools his head.”
Post by Clive Rosfield on Jul 31, 2023 17:03:17 GMT -6
THE OUTLAW
“You ordered my men to evacuate. But I am not someone that stands idly by while my city’s stability is threatened” Hremit spoke calmly, not seeming to be offended by Celes’ remark. “I may not be the warrior that Lord Hremit was, but I would be insulting my position if I was not willing to lead by example.”
And he had likely intended to step in, if not for Celes successfully talking down the swordsman. Which had made him an unintentional eavesdropper to the story told. However, Celes clearly took exception to their decision. For a moment, Hremit looked to the unconscious men that men in his escort had previously begun moving to where they could be healed once out of danger. He took a deep breath, and when he opened his eyes, they seemed heavy. It seemed he hadn’t exactly made the call without thought.
“I do understand this, Miss Chere. At the same time, it was people like yourself and Mr. Dragelion that taught me the importance of giving newcomers to this world an opportunity. A chance to-“
“No. She’s right.”
Clive had heard enough. His gaze had turned to. Celes when she said someone might know him, compacting that for later before moving to the king. Settling his breath, knowing what he was about to do, he held out his swords.
“With all due respect, Your Majesty. Your decision may come from a place of benevolence, and respect for those like Miss Chere who have clearly done your city a great deal. And it means a great deal to know this world has rulers who think like that, when mine never did. But she speaks the truth. To not dole justice would be to let the pain I have inflicted on your men go unanswered. Consider the perspective of your men, and the disrespect you would do them.”
Clive knew a thing or two about proper justice. He’d seen it carried out, and carried it out himself, more than once.
“Place me in a cell. Or under the watch of these Dragonblades, as she is correct that I would be best contained there. Prepare a trial and judgment. I must answer for my crimes. I know you mean only kindness. But this is how things should be. Even if you find my intentions to be worth allowing me to go, I should still pay reparations. You mentioned the option of community service. That should be the bare minimum of my sentence, not an option.”
Clive couldn’t believe he was doing this. Literally having this foreign nation arrest him, submitting to their mercy! Part of his pride hated it, but… It was the honorable thing to do. A long silence followed, and eventually the King slowly nodded his head.
“I understand. Thank you for reminding me of the duty I have not just to my people, but to my men as well. Sir Clive, I hereby place you under arrest for crimes against Torensten and her people. You will be placed into the custody of Miss Chere and the Dragonblades until you stand trial. Miss Chere, I will have a contract written up to make this an official job, if you accept.”
Clive nodded at that. While he didn’t like it one bit, he decided in the end it was best to take the risk and hand over his weapons to the gathered soldiers. Submitting to this willingly felt wrong for someone who had fought so long for freedom. But he had also spent his life seeking reparations for wrongs committed. He was no exception.
“Thank you,” Clive spoke then to Celes. “For keeping me from making a harmful mistake.” He smiled slightly. “And I apologize for mistaking you for a military general. You have the look and mannerisms of one. Somehow I’m not surprised you knew what would be best for the king’s men.”
He looked towards the King, then. “Perhaps he should be trying to procure your services, instead of mine.”
“Funny you say that. I intended to arrange a meeting and personally speak with Miss Chere once she returned to Torensten. Her actions today further show why I sought to do so” brought up Hremit. “She and her counterpart have gone above and beyond in protecting this nation and its people. What they have done cannot be understated, and it has not gone overlooked. If she is interested in hearing me out, I would still wish to have that conversation.”
Clive nodded in approval. “Good. Well, you have men to tend to, and I have a cell to get to until morning. Shall we? I could use some sleep-“
Before he could finish however, a soldier would burst into the chamber.
“Your Majesty! A monster is assaulting the front gates!”
Final Fantasy VI
22
YEARS
Female
Complicated
Heterosexual
429 POSTS
Fin
Use your own eyes and see for yourself whose side I'm on!
Not only was she not amused, she was furious. For all that she had already said, she wished she could say more. She wished it was smarter to say more. She wished it was just a little less dangerous. For everything that she had lived through, for all of her time in the empire, the last thing she wanted to do was aid a king in his scheming. She didn’t appreciate his excuse for why exactly he was here in the first place either. While she’d been battling to the death only moments before, the king and his guard had been doing…
What exactly?
Nothing, of course, because there had been nothing they could have done but make an excellent set of hostages to complicate the situation even further. The king admitted that he wasn’t a warrior, and Celes almost snorted in laughter.
’Of course you’re not, you pudgy old toad.’
That’s why she’d been called in. Celes was a soldier. The king in front of her was not, which meant that he was either noble and stupid or intelligent and lying. Either way, it didn’t leave her in the mood to trust his competence.
Thankfully, it was the mad swordsman, Clive, who saw reason. He insisted that he be punished, an act as insane as it was strangely masochistic. Still, he had more sense than the king of Torensten. She bit her tongue to warn him not to fall for the king’s act. It was clear to her that the decision to spare him any consequences whatsoever came from a place of connection-building and debts among those with power. Maybe they’d have time to talk later. As the king agreed (after being reminded of his duties apparently, something she didn’t think a head of state would need), it seemed they’d have plenty of time after all.
Maybe she’d include skepticism in her lessons on Zephon. This man seemed as though he could use a healthy dose of it.
”I’d do it without a contract,” Celes said, her tone even and cool. ”We work for the sake of the people. Not for any nation.”
At least she did.
She glanced at Clive in surprise as he thanked her. He said it with a small smile that seemed strangely at odds with the man she’d faced only minutes before. Celes couldn’t help an even smaller smile of her own in return. He had good instincts if he’d immediately placed her military background – and a general no less. Perhaps they could talk about that too when they were beyond the king’s ears. She didn’t want to give any heads of state ideas.
Though it seemed the king had something like those ideas all on his own.
”Respectfully,” she said perhaps a bit too icily for her own good, ”I’ll have to decline. We can arrange for a conversation if you wish, but know that the Dragonblades are an independent organization. It would go against our code to accept work or payment from any government.”
In truth, they didn’t have any rule preventing it, not one official and in writing at least. She knew that Caius had been rewarded for the defeat of the Kraken which was all well and good, but she refused to make accepting that kind of money a habit between them. After fighting for so long at the behest of a tyrant, she would never again work for anyone but herself.
Once again, Clive spoke, and Celes found her lips twitching with unexpressed laughter. Was he…joking about his own imprisonment? He made it sound like a nap. But before she could, in fact, get to the business of tending to men, the door burst open once again with the frantic words of a messenger.
Had no one listened to her about the evacuation?
”Wonderful,” she said, shoving her sword into its sheath so that she could move all the faster to the next fire she’d have to put out. ”I’ll handle this. You get Clive here secured. If you wouldn’t mind. Your Majesty.” Was that what you were supposed to call a king? She’d only ever addressed an emperor.
With that, she was off, running down the stairs two at a time just as she’d taken them up. All around her were the stains of blood from men or corpses that had been dragged away. She hoped she could trust the king and his men to take a willing prisoner to his cell to await her until morning. She hoped they would prove that competent. At the moment, she apparently had some sort of monster to deal with, and she was not in the mood to hear that not a single figure of authority could manage without her.
Sometimes she felt like not only the single adult in the room, but the only one in the whole world.
Post by Clive Rosfield on Jul 31, 2023 21:05:23 GMT -6
THE OUTLAW
Maybe it was strange that Clive seemed so laid back about being locked into a cell and placed under house arrest. The truth was, this wouldn’t be Clive’s first cell. But it would be the easiest cell he had ever been in.
Imperial cells. Imperial slavery. The Hideaway’s cell after he realized he’d (apparently) killed Joshua and was being restrained to not take his own life or someone else’s. Compared to those, a holding cell for a night after his mission was complete, and monitoring after the fact, felt like absolutely nothing. It was practically a free room and bed compared to what he had gone through in the past.
Feeling like he was walking on air had ought to do with it as well. Clive had died killing Ultima, ending Origin, and completing their long-held mission. He had accepted that death already. This? This was a bonus. A bonus he didn’t even want. Not when those he loved and cherished weren’t here to join him.
He’d almost rather be dead than be apart from Joshua, Torgal and Jill again. This was somewhere between an unwanted blessing and a curse. He almost didn’t care if they killed him. While his principles cried out that this was a bad idea… Well, he wasn’t exactly himself right now.
“As much as recruiting the group as a whole would be a great boon for Torensten, I know the Dragonblades are and always will be independent, as is their creed. I actually meant you specifically, Miss Chere” Hremit meanwhile, responded calmly to her statement. “Threats such as the dragons, the Kraken, and now today. Have made it clear we need strong leaders in our military, who can respond quickly to threats and help our men be better able to defend themselves and their home. Leaders such as yourself and Mr. Dragelion. You lead well, and you inspire confidence wherever you walk.”
Of course, it wasn’t exactly public knowledge that Celes was some kind of once-evil general back home. All people knew most of the time was that she and Caius had started and established a very successful group of very powerful people. Whom were always there in a crisis. So odds were that Hremit had no idea what kind of memories he might be stoking here.
Clive didn’t exactly know what was going on, but he could almost swear he could hear Celes’ blood pressure rising. And then heard the door slam open because apparently trying to evacuate the palace had run into a snag in the form of a monster at the gates. Celes deigned to handle it, but…
“I would like to provide aid, if possible, Lady Chere. I owe this city for what’s happened, after all” Clive brought up. They’d been calling her Miss Chere, she sounded important, and Charon was an important businesswoman that went by Lady Charon, so… Lady Chere? That seemed to make sense in Clive’s walnut brain. “I have no intention of running. I agreed to this, after all.”
“As he is to be placed in your custody, I leave it up to you, Miss Chere” chimed in Hremit. Soon enough, another soldier arrived as Celes began headed up. Fortunately, Clive had only struck as necessary through most of their ranks. He had been driven, but not cruel. The only ones who got a little more battered were the poor few near the entrance to the chamber that had made Clive think they were sending Bearers to die. Luckily; they’d survive. Celes had talked Clive down before his anger could overwhelm him completely and cause casualties. Another disaster averted by the Icy General.
“Your Majesty, the creature has been successfully quarantined off into a section of the palace, to give us room to finish the evac and tend to the wounded. For some reason it seems very intent on getting into the crystal chamber, but we should be able to close in and incapacitate it if we act quickly.
As Celes (and maybe Clive if allowed) would arrive, she would find that the troops had indeed managed to sequester the creature in a room. It bore the shape of a large canine, but it was so covered in dirt and trash that it was hard to tell for sure besides that it was growling very fiercely. It was held back by the point of several lances, but it was growing more ferocious by the moment and was in the middle of snapping at them when she arrived.
These men though, seemed to recognize it was best to let Celes handle it when they saw her. But as soon as they began to slowly make room for her…
Cries echoed through the room as the big, angry dog began to launch ice magic.
Final Fantasy VI
22
YEARS
Female
Complicated
Heterosexual
429 POSTS
Fin
Use your own eyes and see for yourself whose side I'm on!
[attr=class,bulk] No, she didn’t agree to the help, as a matter of fact. She didn’t care if this Clive was looking to redeem herself. She didn’t trust him at her back. She trusted him behind bars and maybe after a few months proving he could keep his head cool, thank you very much.
And if it was her choice then she had no problem in saying so.
”No,” she said flatly. ”I want you away from this. You’ve already done enough.”
And that was that.
As she charged towards the gates and then heard from one of the uninjured guards that the monster was actually now sectioned off in a portion of the palace and then getting directions to said portion, she set aside her feelings of being the only adult in the room. She was, perhaps, the only one with any sense. Why was it that the king seemed so insistent on freeing a murderer, one who would have more than gladly taken the king’s life had Celes not stepped in, to go wander freely about his castle? Why did the man trust him with a sword? Celes didn’t. She also didn’t trust this king, and as her boots pounded against the castle’s stone floors, it was the king’s words which beat like a drum in her ears.
He wanted her to be a leader in his military. What a joke.
Celes had never been inside the castle before. Its layout was more confusing than she wanted to admit, but eventually after several minutes of cursing and back-tracking, she made her way towards the room in question housing this supposed monster. It was a dining room, she thought, meant for servants or guards if her judgment was correct. The men had had the sense to move the heavy wooden tables and prop them up in a kind of barricade around the door, and as she entered, she found them all surrounding something with their lances.
”What’s the situation?” she asked as she strode confidently past the makeshift barricade. The guards acknowledged her and told her how the beast had slipped past the castle gates and gone charging into the castle until they’d manage to reroute it here. Celes peered past their weapons to find…
A wolf.
Granted, it was a rather large wolf, but still. Celes gave them all a look of both disappointment and skepticism before she sighed and dismissed them with a wave of her hand. ”Take cover. I’ll handle this.”
A wolf. Really? She sent her newest recruits on missions against overlarge dire wolves. Times like these only proved to her the necessity of outside forces protecting the city of Torensten from harm.
The men lowered their lances and began to cautiously edge away from the beast. This must have been the opening the wolf was waiting for, however, because they hadn’t made it far before she felt the sudden, familiar weight of magic in the air. Magic which hadn’t come from her.
”Get down!” she cried before she pulled her sword and started a mad dash towards the apparently magic-imbued beast. She didn’t make it. The spell struck her head-on, and she stumbled back as icicles jutting out towards her, freezing her feet in place before shattering as though in a mockery of the very same spell she’d thrown at Clive. It hurt. It hurt quite a lot, actually, but this spell wasn’t nearly as powerful as her own had been, and it happened to be in an element of far more comfort to her than fire. She grit her teeth, wincing as each individual shard pierced and burned itself against her, and then it was over.
Alright. Perhaps this wasn’t quite the usual wolf, after all.
It was dirty. Thin. Perhaps feral. There was a golden cuff on its ankle that suggested it might have once been chained somewhere. Was it someone’s ill-advised pet? Celes had no idea, but it was her problem now, and if that pet happened to storm a castle of all places then that pet owner didn’t deserve the right to a happy reunion.
Still, the sight of it was somehow sad despite it all. If it really had been someone’s pet once then there was no honor in killing it. Not that Celes believed in honor. She believed in saving lives by whatever means necessary, but that look in its eyes…
It seemed more desperate, cornered as it was, than truly hostile. Celes grounded herself, readied her runic abilities in case the thing cast again, and glanced to the castle guards. They were all frightened, some of them cowering behind the barricades while others had lost their footing and simply stared at the beast, pale and frozen in shock.
”Move!” she told the ones who hadn’t managed to make it to cover, and her insistence was enough to get them to join the others. Celes knew that she should simply kill the thing. It was so filthy and desperate that perhaps it would even be considered a mercy, but for the second time that night, she found herself making what very well might have been a terrible mistake.
”I’ll need a cage. A big one,” she said with her usual biting sense of authority. ”And meat. This is a dining hall, there must be something you can find!”
Soldiers were trained to follow orders, not question them, and while Celes technically had no authority over them, the sound of their scrambling footsteps told her that they didn’t much care for the distinction. She was the only thing standing between them and a desperate, cornered animal with snarling teeth, wild eyes, and magic that could freeze a man in place while the beast launched its attack.
And so she waited, sword at the ready for defense against both magic and the deadly lunge of the beast in question.
Post by Clive Rosfield on Aug 1, 2023 11:19:55 GMT -6
THE OUTLAW
This wolf had been a difficult opponent for the guards, ferocious as it was it had been much more of a problem than a regular wolf. Something that Celes had figured out quickly when it began using magic. The soldiers followed Celes' orders, going to find a cage. The dirt and trash began to freeze in place before falling off its fur as this beast channeled a power perhaps unlike anything else seen before in a wolf. It took on a more monstrous appearance as frost coated it, its fur rose up and spikes began to form from the ice across its body.
Believe it or not, Celes' order to just go to jail had actually been heeded, evidenced by the fact that Clive had been bound and was currently being led into the dungeons. So she probably wasn't getting any help this time. Celes would begin to hear the rattling of a cage being moved somewhere behind her as a few courageous soldiers began to cautiously file out from the kitchens with meat. For a moment, the wolf would eye the meat with an almost ravenous look, but it surprisingly chose to ignore it. Instead, it would charge and fire ice magic once again before trying to make a beeline past Celes.
It was trying to escape. As if the guards and Celes weren't its priority. Even if the meat seemed to be tempting for it, and the wolf was clearly very hungry, it held no intentions of pursuing either their forces or the meat. It had some other purpose in mind that it was after desperately. But if anyone did get in its way, it would attack, and attack viciously at that.
The cage would be brought just outside the dining room, and the guards holding it would await further orders.
Final Fantasy VI
22
YEARS
Female
Complicated
Heterosexual
429 POSTS
Fin
Use your own eyes and see for yourself whose side I'm on!
[attr=class,bulk] Celes had thought her plan would work. This was a starving animal she was dealing with, after all, but no. Of course it didn’t. Though the magical wolf-dog eyed the meat ravenously, at the last second it seemed to think better of the idea and instead decided to try its little ice spell again which seemed far less surprising now that it had taken on an entirely different form. Its ragged, gray fur had turned a pure white. Its eyes glowed a piercing blue, and the rest of it turned black like soot. It trailed a stream of magic behind it as it ran charged towards her, hurling blizzard at her as it went.
Thankfully, Celes already had runic activated and the spell was quite easy to negate. However, the negation cost her valuable seconds which the monstrous wolf used to leap past her and dart through a gap in the barricade, paws scrambling for purchase on the stone floor.
Why couldn’t anything ever be easy?
Celes cursed under her breath and sprinted after it, wishing she’d stabbed the damned thing when she’d had the chance. The wolf easily outpaced her as it banked a corner and charged headlong down a hallway towards who knew what.
What to do, what to do? Celes ran through every option in her head. It was still within range of her spells. She could try something to kill it from here though seeing as they apparently shared the same elemental affinity, even that option was less than ideal. She was running out of time before the monster managed to escape her altogether, and then what? If it killed someone, that blood would be on her hands.
Without a moment to spare, Celes thrust her hands together and tried something else. She muttered her incantations, felt her magic surge within her, and then cast it. ”Sleep!”
These kinds of roundabout methods weren’t her usual style. It hadn’t come naturally to her in the same way that ice or healing magic did, but that’s why they’d started off using magicite, wasn’t it? Once learned, the simple spell had integrated itself with all the rest like a kind of immigrant making its home within her blood.
Surprisingly, the gamble paid off. Setzer would have been proud.
The monster slowed, stumbling at first before slowing to a trot and then a walk and then swaying on its feet and finally toppling over with a low whine. Whatever had caused its strange transformation ended and it was back to looking for all the world like nothing more than a wolf the size of a small bear with a little golden cuff on its paw. Celes finally caught up to the thing and stopped, leaning over her knees and panting for breath.
She nudged it with her boot to make sure it was well and truly unconscious before she gave the order to haul it into the cage. They could decide what to do with it later.
Someone cried for help down the hall. A healer, they said. They needed a healer. Celes groaned, ran a hand through her hair, and then took off even though her arms ached, her wrist was sprained, and she sported cold burns across her body from the shards of ice that had struck her.
