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year 5, quarter 3
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[attr=class,bulk] Celes laughed. She couldn’t help it. It wasn’t her usual, dry, world-weary laugh either, but something genuine that she wasn’t quite used to. The image of Terra hugging a tree…
”You’re so sentimental,” she said fondly with a shake of her head. Of course, Celes had felt the same amazement, but what followed had been an entire year of pure skepticism and paranoia. How could this be possible, she’d asked herself. Why was she here? By what means? And who was pulling the strings?
She’d long since stopped asking those questions. If this was some kind illusion then said illusionist was certainly taking his time. If this was meant to be a punishment then her punisher had severely underestimated the appeal of living somewhere with life again. At this point, Celes wouldn’t have gone back to her old, broken world even if she had the chance. She wouldn’t even let herself be dragged there. As far as she was concerned, this was her new reality, and there was no point in lingering over the hows and whys.
Celes snorted as Terra explained how she’d been introduced to the Returners. ”They were laying it on a little thick, weren’t they?” But she supposed that’s what happened when a band of rebels unexpectedly found themselves in possession of an amnesiac half-esper. It all came down to talk of hope. A shining ray of hope, as they’d apparently said. She hoped it wasn’t Locke or Edgar who had said it. She’d have lost just a little respect in them if they had.
”I joined because I didn’t have much of a choice. It was Locke and the Returners or execution. I still have no idea why Locke saved me. Maybe I reminded him of his old girlfriend. Though now that I’ve seen the woman, I really can’t imagine the resemblance.”
There it was. Her usual dry skepticism. Seeing Rachel raised from the dead only momentarily had certainly been difficult for Locke, and Celes had tried to support him the best that she could. It had also brought into focus just how secondary Celes truly was to him. Could she blame him? Not exactly. Did it hurt? Quite a bit now that she thought about it.
Celes nodded as Terra returned the sentiment, trying for a smile as she looked back at her and met her strange esper eyes. They really had been through so much, the two of them, hadn’t they? Celes couldn’t exactly call them close, growing up in the depths of Vector’s science division. They hadn’t been given the chance to mingle more than a few times, and they’d been quite different even as children. Still, it seemed that their fates were ever entwined. As different as they were, it was a relief to have Terra beside her. If anyone could understand…
Well, Terra could understand better than anyone, couldn’t she?
Terra looked slightly nervous as she went on, and at first, Celes didn’t know why. Terra explained that they’d defeated Kefka, something Celes had already intuited over time, but then went on with the details.
”All magic? It’s gone?” Celes stared at her before processing her final words. Celes and Terra had been the ones to deal the final blows.
Good.
Celes wished she remembered as much. She wished she remembered driving her sword straight through him, this time not as an impulsive mistake but as an act of vengeance for everything he had taken from the world. She couldn’t remember such a thing, but she could imagine it, and that was enough.
After everything Kefka had done. After everything he’d done to her and to Terra, it was only fitting that they’d been the ones to finish him.
”Well. I highly doubt that you survived by us wishing for it,” Celes answered, feeling suddenly weak and uncertain. Still, she laughed again. Dry. Weary. ”But…that is good to hear.”
She closed her eyes, giving herself a moment to process it all before she took a deep breath and looked back at the window. ”I didn’t remember any of it when we last met. I was so…hurt and confused. I needed time.” She paused, uncertain of what to say next. She let her own intuition guide her. ”No one’s…told me exactly. Not until now. But I’ve had dreams that they have. I’ve had…feelings. I still don’t remember exactly, but in all this time, I’d become all but certain that we succeeded. Somehow. To tell the truth, I’d had no intention of surviving the fight at all. How could we fight a god and win? I just knew I had to try.”
She hadn’t been this honest even with Caius. There were some things that no one could understand. No one but Terra and their fellow allies.
”I’m glad that he’s gone,” she went on. ”More than glad. But now that he is, I know that my place is here. I’m only good for wielding a sword. The world we left behind…It has no need for someone like me. For you, maybe. You’re so kind and compassionate. But me? I don’t think I would have anything to offer.”
She picked at a loose thread on her jacket, wishing that she hadn’t resurfaced this strange streak of honesty. It was Terra’s fault. Her sudden arrival. The shock of seeing her alive and well and here in front of her. Somehow, Celes couldn’t help but speak aloud the deepest doubts of her heart.
”I’m sorry. Was that…too much?” She looked back at Terra and gave her an apologetic smile. ”I don’t know what’s come over me.”
[attr=class,bulk] Celes didn’t need this. She didn’t need this. She did not need this.
But here she was, feet aching, sleep deprived, and struggling to catch her breath as this idiot of a self-sacrificing man yelled at her and a plucky girl with an almost incomprehensible accent tried to mediate and her sprained wrist pulsed with pain and she did not need this.
Celes wanted to scream. She wanted to place her head in her hands and let out a long, primal scream until her lungs felt hollow and maybe, just maybe, she could express a small fraction of what she felt right now. But she couldn’t do that, could she? No. She had to be professional. She had to work out a proper solution.
So even though she was in no position to think properly or make decisions or do much of anything at all except curl up on the side of the hallway, rest her head against her arm, close her eyes, and fall asleep, she kept her head high and tried to listen.
Clive had a lot to say for himself. Mid had a lot to say for him too. Even though it was clear that she was trying to be fair, it felt quite a bit as though the two were ganging up on her. Which was only fair, considering she was practically a stranger and they were more like family, but she found that the rational part of her mind wasn’t working particularly well at the moment leaving only that primal scream in its place.
Don’t be defensive. Don’t be defensive. Don’t be-
”You’re sorry? After everything?” she snapped back at Clive. ”Of course this will cause me more trouble! Because that’s exactly what I needed!” She felt a sob rise up in her throat and she cut it off, strangling it before it could reach any other part of her.
Oh damn it all! She couldn’t do this.
Celes put a hand over her mouth and closed her eyes. ”I…I was up all night. Dealing with this mess. Putting out fires. I just…I need a moment.” She hated how weak she sounded. She hated the emotion in her voice. She hated herself.
Why couldn’t she shove all this off on someone else? Make it their problem? She could have easily left Clive in jail. Left it to the state to sort out. Her stomach ached, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten in nearly twenty-four hours. She just needed a moment to breathe and to process and to think.
”I…can’t give you the wolf,” she said slowly. ”It’s not in my power. They asked for my advice, but it’s in the custody of the city guard now. Even if I wanted to, they don’t trust you, and I doubt they’d give a monster back to a violent criminal.”
She took a long, slow breath. This was clearly important to them. Extremely important, apparently. Celes could compromise. She could problem solve. She just had to access the part of her brain responsible for it all.
”I’ll plead your case. At the very least, I’m sure they won’t hurt it if I tell them it belongs to one of you. I’ll tell them it’s Mid’s. That it was brought here separately and came to help when Clive was in danger. After all the damage it did to the castle, I don’t think they’d hand over custody to her until we have somewhere to put it, but that would sort this all out faster.”
Which meant securing a new place for Mid to live. The Wyvern’s Rest didn’t have room for what she’d suggested. And then Mid would need…whatever it was that she needed to build it all. But it was a compromise. A fine compromise, she thought. Maybe it would stop them both from yelling at her.
”In the meantime, we can go and visit and you’ll see that it’s being treated fine. It was starving and dirty when I fought it last night. It looks much better now. They’ve fed it and I think somehow managed to give it a bath…”
Which meant the wolf was being treated better than she was. Wonderful.
[attr=class,bulk] Celes closed her eyes as Terra spoke. It was like listening to her own thoughts in narration. She didn’t need to be told that these people hadn’t lived through what they had. She didn’t need it, but still. It was nice. In its own way. She remembered the days when she had raged at herself that no one could understand her. She had raged for so long that it had dulled to frustration and then gone cold, but that feeling was still there, and now it seemed to almost purr.
For three years, she’d been alone. There had been others around her, of course, others who cared for her in a way that no one else ever had, but they couldn’t understand. Not really.
Terra could. There was a sadness to her voice that mirrored Celes’ own.
”I know,” Celes said and then laughed, dry and humorless. ”Did you know, when I found myself here I was shocked by the sight of trees? I thought I must be dreaming.”
Dreaming or insane. That first year had been anything but pleasant.
Terra accepted Celes’ proposal without hesitation. It was so fast and so eager that Celes wasn’t entirely certain which part she’d accepted at all, but it didn’t matter. They could work that out later. For now, Celes finally turned to look back at her friend. Were they friends? Perhaps they could be with time.
”As Returners?” she asked with a wry smile. She’d always thought the name was silly, but she certainly hadn’t been the one to think it up. She also hadn’t been in a position to argue when said Returners were the only reason she was alive. She wondered who had thought of it. Edgar? Locke? At the thought of them all, her heart ached in a way it hadn’t in months. If Terra was here…
No, she couldn’t let herself hope. She wanted the others here with them, of course, but what she wanted hardly mattered. She could only appreciate what she had now.
”Let’s protect this world together then,” she said. ”And make sure that no one here has to feel what we did. It’s also rather nice to live somewhere alive again. I’m rather fond of the trees, you know.”
[attr=class,bulk] Clive’s eyes lit with recognition before Celes had even finished her sentence. He said something that made no sense to her and then…
Began sprinting down the hallway.
Celes was so taken aback by the absolute sudden audacity of it all that for a moment she could only stand there, stunned as she watched him charge down the prison halls like an enraged bull.
”Oh boy, you’ve done it now,” Mid commented as though Clive were an unruly child and not a prisoner currently under watch for assault on a holy object.”That’d be Torgal. Clive’s dog. Two of ‘em are inseparable. ‘E might ‘ave you all convinced with this broodin’ dark stuff, but ‘e’s just a big puppy dog really.”
And that was all Celes heard before she cursed loudly and started down the hallway after him.
Mid was still talking, following her most likely, but Celes wasn’t listening anymore. Because Clive, a man being judged at every moment for an upcoming court case, had been under her jurisdiction for less than sixty seconds and he was already making an escape into a restricted area of the city jail with the obvious intention of releasing a monster come hell or high water.
”Damn it all!”
Clive had a head start. He also had the clear advantage in strength. Even if Celes hadn’t been absolutely exhausted by the night before, she would have been at a disadvantage in a foot race for the simple fact that she was dressed as a civilian. No sword and more importantly wearing shoes with heels that were not conducive for running in the best of times. With her legs already sore and her feet blistered, these were hardly the best of times.
It was hardly a wonder that Mid with her sensible boots and a good night’s rest was able to keep up with her, more or less.
Celes had absolutely no hope of reaching him before he did something so incomprehensibly stupid that he’d be locked in that jail cell until the unfortunate day of his trial. Not in these circumstances. Not unless he simply keeled over or something…
Which was exactly what he did, as it happened.
Celes slowed to a stop, panting as she found him leaned against a wall, still staggering forward at a snail’s pace looking very much like he was about to fall unconscious.
”You…idiot!” she hissed between gasping breaths. Clive was muttering pathetically to himself about coming for the creature which apparently had a name. He looked at her pleadingly, speaking through his own labored breathing.
It was an absolutely pitiful sight. It was also entirely unnecessary.
”No one’s hurting your dog!” she yelled as she leaned over onto her knees, cursing again through her gritted teeth. ”He’s being well taken care of! And if you’d stopped to ask me instead of running off like a lunatic, I would have told you that they’re more interested in finding the owner and figuring out what in the goddess’ names happened than blindly killing the thing!”
Celes was tired. She was sleep-deprived. She was stressed. And she had just about had it with Clive Rosfield.
”You do realize that this, all of this, is an evaluation, don’t you?” Celes ignored the stitch in her side in order to straighten herself and fix him with an icy look. ”They’re taking notes! I’m supposed to be the primary witness! For your trial. Because, believe it or not, us off-worlders are here as refugees! Extremely powerful, potentially dangerous refugees! And most places don’t take kindly to us as it is!”
She took a threatening step forward, fist clenched at her side. ”The Dragonblades were formed to help people. We train local mercenaries. We do disaster relief. We help other off-worlders get back on their feet. But you know what else we do? We make a good name for ourselves! We show people that not all of us are power-crazed monsters because you? Me? Mid? We’re not the only ones coming through! Whatever’s happening can bring anyone, dead or alive, including the most bloodthirsty monsters of men you can imagine! We fight them off! We’ve made Torensten a haven for people like us, and I’m not letting you ruin that for everyone!”
It had been a long time since Celes had really gone off like this. It felt good in its own cathartic way. It did almost nothing to quell her frustrations, but it did make her feel even the slightest bit better.
”No one thinks that you’re evil,” she went on. ”What they do think is that you’re impulsive and too strong for your own good. Your job – your only job – is to prove that you can stop and think before you go running off and getting people hurt! Congratulations. I’ve never seen someone fail a test so quickly.”
Celes let out a bitter laugh before she shook her head. ”I can take you to your dog. You can see that he’s doing fine. And I’m sure that if you behave for the next few months then the judge will give him back to you safe and sound. But, as the woman responsible for keeping you in line, you might understand why I don’t want to give you a demon wolf on top of everything else.
”Here.” Celes put her hands together, muttered a short incantation, and cast a low level cure spell on the obviously injured man. It wouldn’t be enough for him to fight her off. It wouldn’t rejuvenate his exhaustion. But it would at least be enough to get him back on his feet, she hoped at least.
”Now apologize. I don’t think that Mid deserves such reckless behavior when she was so happy to see you alive.”
Well, that certainly explained…everything now that she thought of it.
While the girl was clearly quite proud to be part of a rebellion (a double rebel as she called it – as though trying to one up Celes’ own experiences), she was also apparently a princess. Celes didn’t know much about the conventions of royalty, but she’d always imagined a princess to act somehow more refined. Weren’t there classes on etiquette or something of the sort? Regardless, Yuffie had lived quite the privileged life until the fall of her nation. Her father, it seemed, had no interest in disciplining his daughter even when she caused untold destruction.
What do you get when a privileged young girl who had never been told no in her life suddenly gets thrust into a rebellion? Why, Yuffie of course.
She was overconfident. She was prideful. She thought that she could, in fact, walk in and run the place. She was also a child, Celes had to remind herself, though when Celes had been this girl’s age…
She didn’t know Yuffie’s exact age, but Celes must have seen battle by then. And if she had destroyed some priceless artifact of Vector, she would have seen prison time at the very least.
It was with great effort that Celes swallowed back her resentment, took a deep breath, and said simply, ”I see.”
She did not trust Yuffie’s idea of a “super good reason” to disobey, but that would come later. It was clear that this child needed discipline in her life. It was also clear that the girl would fight every attempt to give it to her. But perhaps with time and an indomitable will, it could be done, and who better to make an attempt than ex-general Celes Chere?
”That won’t be necessary,” Celes said as Yuffie pumped herself up for a fight. ”If Caius has already tested your skills in combat then I don’t need to see it for myself. I’d rather score your other strengths and weaknesses. It’s how we know how to delegate our members to different tasks.”
Or at least it was how she had always done it. She had no idea how Caius had handled the onboarding of new recruits in her absence.
”We’ll start with your endurance,” Celes continued as she walked over to a nearby shed and, after sifting through their collection of practice weapons and gardening supplies, pulled out a clipboard, a pen, and a paper. She closed the shed door and started back towards Yuffie, clipboard in hand. ”Eight laps around the training yard. I want to see how you do.” Of course, the training yard was still muddy from the recent rain showers, but that would only help the assessment. If the girl was afraid to get mud splattered then it would go right in her file.
”After that, we’ll do sprints. Then I’d like to see your dexterity, acrobatics, balance, and the technique of your attacks on a training dummy. After that, I’ll judge your magic if you have access to it.”
It would be a long afternoon, and likely an even longer one for Yuffie. But perhaps this would Celes’ first step in proving who, exactly, was actually in charge.
[attr=class,bulk] ”You’ll need me for that, I’m afraid.”
Celes heard their voices echoing from down the hall. Or rather, she heard Mid’s, eager to finally free her friend. Celes didn’t know what “mystery” she was talking about though if she meant to figure out exactly why any of this had happened, Celes wished her luck. And then silently hoped that she very much failed. If they knew why it was happening then it might just be possible to reverse it all, and that was not something that Celes was eager to see happen.
Regardless, as Celes approached, she nodded at the guard to do as Mid said, and one click of a key later, the cell door creaked open. It sounded like it could really do with some oiled hinges, but what did Celes know about running a jail block?
”Sorry about that. I hope you weren’t kept waiting for long.” Celes shook her head. ”There was an issue in the back. They wanted my advice seeing as I was the one to capture it, and-...”
Oh dear, she wasn’t making sense, was she? Celes sighed and started from the beginning.
”You weren’t the only one to break into the castle last night,” she said, stifling a yawn at the very mention of the events the night before. ”There was a monster. It must have come in through the gates you left wide open. Anyway, while the guards were busy being assaulted by you, it found its way inside and started causing havoc. I found it cornered and managed to capture it alive.”
It certainly hadn’t made her task easy. But then, that was animal instinct for you. They didn’t particularly like being surrounded by men with pikes as it happened.
”It looks like it might have been someone’s pet, but even if we found the owner, the guards aren’t exactly keen on giving it back after it broke loose inside the castle. They’ll probably have to put the poor thing down. Which would really be a shame.” She’d seen something in its bright blue eyes. Desperation. Sadness. If it really was someone’s pet then it wasn’t its fault, what had happened. A sudden thought struck her and she eyed Clive suspiciously.
”It isn’t yours by any chance, is it?” she asked. ”Wolf the size of a bear? Golden cuff on its arm? Can turn into an ice demon at will?”
They had both broken through the castle defenses at once, after all. It wouldn’t be so strange for him to have sent a beast to distract the guards.
[attr=class,bulk] As soon as Celes set eyes on Clive, she knew two things for certain. First, he had indeed had quite the “rough night.” It looked like he’d gotten about as much sleep as she had. He was disheveled, sullen, and generally looked like he could use a few hours in the bath. Secondly, she knew at once that her hunch had been right.
Recognition lit the man’s eyes as they found Mid, and hers lit up in return. His were disbelieving. Hers were almost amused.
Celes couldn’t help a tired smile. Despite everything, she was glad she’d been able to reunite the two. Mid talked with such a playful familiarity that it was hard not to be.
She crossed her arms and let them speak, nodding as Mid mentioned her and her situation and tried to explain it to Clive. It was, indeed, “well weird.”
Mid went on, and as her emotions took over, Celes tried her hardest to not intrude on what was clearly a heartfelt reunion. Not intruding proved rather difficult when they were in a dimly lit prison hallway, but she tried anyway, pointedly looking away to try to give Mid some semblance of privacy. Celes was tired – exhausted actually – but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t at least try to be polite. She was about to ask that Clive be released when echoing footsteps down the hall stopped her short.
A prison guard approached, had a quick muttered word with the one who had escorted them down here, and then turned to Celes. ”I heard you were here. You’re a Dragonblade, right?”
Part of Celes, the part that had managed about three hours of sleep, wanted to bristle at him. Was she a Dragonblade? Oh, it was hard to say after she’d co-founded them. Instead, she swallowed back her frustrations and said merely, ”I am.”
”We wanted your opinion on something if you wouldn’t mind taking a look.”
If she wouldn’t mind. As though she wasn’t already busy cleaning up the city’s messes. Celes pinched her nose and sighed. ”Of course.”
She didn’t want to leave Clive behind bars any longer than was necessary. She didn’t want to stay here longer than they had to in the first place, but if they were calling on her personally then it must have been important. She turned to Clive and Mid and gave them an apologetic look. ”This won’t take long,” she said even though she had absolutely no way of knowing that. ”You two can catch up in the meantime. Here.” She rummaged through her pocket until she found one of the ridiculous little booklets titled, ’So You’ve Been Transported to Zephon.’
In hindsight, maybe they should have taken the title a little more seriously.
”I meant to give this to him on the way back, but it might help you answer his questions in the meantime.” She handed it to Mid then looked at Clive. ”We’ll get you out soon. I promise,” she said before turning, nodding to the guard, and following him down the hall, her heels clicking with the echo of her own footsteps.
There was always another fire to put out, and she was just the one to do it apparently.
[attr=class,bulk] Celes didn’t realize her mistake until they came to the tram service station and the young engineer’s eyes went wide and she began to talk.
And talk. And talk.
To Celes, who had been accustomed to the Empire’s magitechnology long before she’d found her way to a city reliant on it, the tram was nothing more than a convenient public transportation option. It was certainly impressive how Torensten relied so heavily on its airship fleet given the general scarcity of them in her previous life, but it was nothing of particular note. To Mid, however, it seemed absolutely life changing.
Celes had no idea what Mid was talking about. She’d never thought to question the mechanics of airship technology just as she’d never thought to question the very air she breathed. Perhaps Setzer would have been able to engage the woman in a rousing conversation that would put any unlucky bystanders to sleep, but Celes was not Setzer, and her knowledge on the subject was limited only to her experiences in listening to the pilot’s cursing from the engine room as he tuned up the Blackjack.
This was all to say that while Mid spoke, Celes could do nothing more than hum on occasion to show that she was listening. This, apparently, was quite enough for Mid.
The one-sided conversation went on after they’d landed, distracting Mid so much that Celes had to pull her out of the way of an incoming chocobo cart not once but twice. The engineer hardly seemed to notice and just kept on with her theories, talking about things like buoyancy and ballonets and the density of gasses and Celes gave up on even pretending to listen as she tried her absolute hardest to guide Mid to the local jail without anyone getting hurt. When they finally arrived, it seemed to come as a surprise for Mid as though she’d entirely forgotten why they were here in the first place.
By the time that Mid fully turned her attention to the task at hand, Celes was so tuned out that it took her nearly half a minute to respond.
”Hm? Oh, well, usually freeing him would be quite difficult, but seeing as I made an arrangement with the king himself…” She waved a hand dismissively as though she could somehow dismiss her very association with that corrupt and distasteful man. ”We shouldn’t have any problems.”
And in fact she didn’t. She merely stated her full name, her visitor’s name who she identified somewhat facetiously as another member of the Dragonblades who she’d brought along for security reasons, and then signed a few papers at the guard station. The jail was a dismal place, naturally, but not nearly the worst she’d seen. The prisons of Vector had been far more dungeon-like than this place of stone and crystal-fed lantern light. It was rather clean, at least, and entirely without means of torture which meant it rated rather highly in Celes’ books.
A prison guard led them down the stairs and past several cells, telling them that he’d unlock the cell door and release Clive into their custody once they’d verified his identity. Their footsteps and voices echoed down the hallway until, finally, the guard slowed to a stop in front of them indicating the correct cell.
”Clive?” Celes called. ”It’s me and that friend that I mentioned. We’re here to take you back to our headquarters.”
[attr=class,bulk] Mid did not react as Celes had expected.
Personally, if Celes had been told that one of her old friends was currently in prison for storming a castle, she would have been at least a tad concerned. Or frustrated. Or quite angry, actually, depending on the person in question. Mid’s enthusiasm didn’t waver for a minute, however, as she launched into an explanation that was as long as it was confusing and strangely familiar.
Celes was disappointed to realize that between Mid and Clive, she was beginning to understand the basic concepts of Valisthea without much difficulty. Mid’s explanation made far more sense than it should have.
If Celes could agree with anything the young engineer had said, it was that Clive did in fact appear to be both quite big and quite the idiot.
She didn’t know what to make of the ensuing story about Mid’s father meeting Clive naked in jail. She really didn’t.
Then, finally, the conversation turned to the matter at hand and Celes had the opportunity to answer questions again. Which was quite the relief considering the alternative of continuing to imagine that jail cell interaction any further.
”He’s not joining the band,” Celes corrected. ”We’ll be taking him into our custody. Think a kind of…house arrest. He’ll need to stay here or be under some kind of Dragonblades supervision. At least until the trial.”
Moreso, it was an opportunity to keep an eye on the dangerous and impulsive swordsman so that he didn’t take out his misdirected rage on anything else that confused him. Celes had the impression that Clive was one to be easily confused.
Thankfully, Mid was not only amenable to helping to collect Clive, but actively excited at the prospect. Celes couldn’t help a laugh at the look on her face.
This must have truly been a common occurrence indeed. Celes wondered briefly what she’d gotten herself into.
”Well, let’s get going then. I did promise that I’d pick him up in the morning.” She glanced past Mid to the window outside. Based on the sunlight, it was indeed a respectable hour of the morning, and she could only guess that the jail was open for visitors by now. She just hoped the guards had been informed that she’d be coming.
Celes’ legs ached as she made her way down the stairs and out the door again. She was distinctly aware of the dark circles under her eyes and of her damp hair, still dripping in places. She must have looked like a mess. However she looked, it was far less terrible than she felt.
”It isn’t too far from here,” Celes said. ”We can take the air tram. I’ll show you the city as we go.”
[attr=class,bulk] Celes knew she’d found a match before she’d even finished talking.
As soon as she told Mid about a maniac shouting about slaves and gods trying to shatter a core crystal for no discernible reason, Mid lit up, practically buzzing with her own excitement. Apparently this was common behavior. Known behavior, even, that “definitely sounded like him.” Mid even suggested adding the advice of not smashing crystals to their official pamphlets which…was a rather bizarre take, but she noted it all the same.
Were all the people of Valisthea like this? Celes felt a slow dread creep over her at the thought of dealing with another Clive.
”I didn’t hurt him terribly,” Celes reassured her. In fact, she wasn’t quite sure that her spell had done much of anything at all to the man except momentarily inconvenience him. His strange fiery form had melted her magic in seconds. ”He wanted to hurt me quite badly at first, but he only managed a sprained wrist.” She gestured at her bandages. Thankfully, this was not her first sprain. Not in the slightest, and she knew how to give it the support it needed.
Mid’s concern was, well, there was no other word for it but heartwarming. And as the girl’s bright eyes welled with tears which fell without her even seeming to notice, Celes felt a sudden guilt at her insistence that the man be imprisoned. Yes, he’d been confused. If the state had truly tried to go forth with an execution as the man had suggested himself, she would have vehemently opposed it, but it was clear to her the swordsman was dangerous. It was just as clear that the king had shown a callous disregard for the lives of his own men.
If the king hadn’t appeared…If it had only been the two of them up in that crystal tower…
Celes could imagine herself spiriting him away back to the Rest. She would have more or less kept him under the same sort of house arrest she’d demanded anyway, but it would have been a lot less messy than the official situation. She hated acting within the bureaucracy.
Mid turned away, wiping her eyes as though there were any chance that Celes hadn’t noticed. Apparently, she’d thought Clive to be dead. Given what she knew of Zephon, he very well might have been, but that was a lesson for another time. More pressingly, Mid had turned back to her, her eyes as bright as the sun as she asked where he was.
Oh dear…
”Well, he’s…” She hesitated. How best to say this? ”He’s…currently in prison.”
Best to rip off the worst of it quickly, she supposed.
”But only temporarily! It was clear that Torensten’s forces wouldn’t be able to control him so the Dragonblades will be taking custody of him until his trial. Which I suspect will go quite well. Torensten is extremely generous to its off-world population.”Too generous as she’d seen the night before. Suspiciously generous. It was the kind of generosity that expected a few favors in return. She made a mental note to add that to her list of lessons for the two of them in the future.
”I’ll be leaving to pick him up soon so that he can be brought here. I was hoping you’d come with me to confirm he is who we suspect.”
