Defense as Offense by Kigaeno Moondancer 10 Sept 2007

kootdwagon@fastmail.fm (mail for commissions, no limit on content)
Place: Burmecia
Date: 17 May 1800 (Almost a month after the ending FMV to the game)
Rating: M for disturbing death, no sex
Characters:
Kigaeno Moondancer, High Priest
Mogu
Claire, Moon Maiden
Kildea, Forest Oracle
Wylan, Tree Oracle
Kapu, Dali Mayor
Hal, Dali Innkeeper
Crista, Mayor's assistant

"What's this?" Kapu adjusted his reading glasses and looked over the letter, "This makes no sense!"

"I got it today via moogle." Crista replied, "It looks like a warning of some kind?"

Indeed, the letter warned that the people of Dali should leave the city today, lest they be caught in its destruction, unsigned.

"Preposterous, its some madman. No one has any reason to harass a small village like this." The Mayor wadded the page up without a second thought and tossed it into the trash bin beside him. "Now leave me, I'm a busy man."

"Busy indeed..." Crista didn't know what it was about this, but she somehow had a feeling the letter was authentic. She stepped out of the house and into the streets of the tiny village.

She watched the children playing there as she considered to herself. Out of the inn ran the little moogle at a rather frantic pace, kupo-ing along as he ran out of the city. Now that was strange. Its probably nothing.

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"High Priest..." Wylan took a deep breath as she watched Kigaeno loading up... the Cleyran harp? "Are you... sure?"

"I need this." Kigaeno stated without much explanation to it, but a definitive tone to not question him on it.

He finished loading it and climbed up into the cargo hold of the shabby airship with it. He called out, "Claire? Mogu? We move."

Three people. And a harp, jewel fitted back where it belonged, and Kigaeno was determined to prove that one didn't need an army to be a threat to even a great kingdom.

Wylan spoke again, "But... your eminence.. I do not know about this. What if it endangers the aid that Alexandria has sent to reconstruct Burmecia.

"We aren't Burmecia." Kigaeno replied, seeming sure of his actions. As he looked out of the cargo hold, Claire and Mogu made their way into the ship. Claire paused to give Wylan a nod, seeming almost apologetic in her actions, but she was determined to help him.

Kigaeno then shrugged, commenting, "Dali is a small town, they don't need Dali to help Burmecia."

Wylan began to feel helpless. This stood against every principal the people of Cleyra cherished, yet it seemed that even without appointment Kigaeno was the recognized head, and doing as he willed. Everyone was nervous, but no one that knew what he was doing was certain enough to stop him.

Kigaeno gave Wylan an assuring if menacing grin, before backing into the hold and letting the door come closed behind him.

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Crista stood herself up again, sighing as she started to turn back towards the city proper. She didn't like doing errands outside the town, and she didn't particularly care for having to deal with outsiders. Still, she realized the importance of doing so. After all, careful negotiations had avoided punishment for their involvement in the black mage fiasco, and instead granted them a great deal of exports to make up for the lost funds.

She paused and looked up as an airship flew overhead, making her blink as it moved towards the town ahead of her. Was that an Alexandrian ship? She didn't remember any ships scheduled to pick up food exports today. She paused a moment in her step and watched as the craft flew over the normal landing area and instead settled above the city proper. What an odd thing...

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"Right.." Mogu felt his eyes shift over towards Kigaeno as they settled at their target location, "You promised we wouldn't have to dance now, right?"

"No." Kigaeno grinned, "But if we need to in the future for a bigger target, I'll make sure you have a pretty dress."

Mogu gave him a brief unappreciative glare, then hopped down from his place, "We're in position, I'll hold it here while you go do your cheering thing for Claire."

"Indeed..." Kigaeno was already stepping out on deck, preparing to go down the hatch to find her. He did indeed find the moon maiden, making final adjustments for a ritual like playing, even dressed in her traditional maiden outfit, and looking rather nervous. Her hands were shaking as she took her seat next to the harp.

Kigaeno reached out and took hold of one of her hands, "Take a deep breath sweet, you're in no danger here." he failed to realize that what she was doing rather than the danger was what was really getting to her; she'd get use to it perhaps later, "Mogu is going to shout down any adjustments to make, I know its rather primitive, but we're on a budget." He gave her a lopsided smile, which almost made her giggle, and certainly lightened the mood.

Mogu shouted down, "Hurry up! You know this thing won't hoover forever!" He then muttered to himself, "I suppose if I die from this, it will be a hell of a way to go out."

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Crista held up her hand as she crossed into the vicinity of the main town, "Odd wind..." As she stepped into the town, she blinked again, the wind was calm inside. Pausing for a moment and taking a few steps back to verify, she stood there for a moment trying to figure this out. "Its getting faster...."

Something clicked inside her head, and she ran towards the town, as fast as she could go, heading towards the mayor's structure. Pushing past several playing children, she only yelled, "Get out of town now!" When replied to with blank stares, she answered them, "Go play at the docks, the old man was asking when you would get there for some candy." Several eyes lit up and they started to wander in that direction. She felt like a madwoman, but something in her said this wasn't right.

While she was out being a nut, Mayor Kapu spoke to his brother Hal over a bottle of wine he had acquired, "And the new deal is even better, we'll be extending the farms out to keep up."

"Nice work." His brother chuckled, "The Queen is too naive though. I can't believe she bought that you had no idea what the mages were going to be used for."

The mayor shrugged, about to reply when Crista burst through the doors, "We have to leave now!"

Greeted only with a few blinks and a surprised expression from both men, she continued, "The warning we got was real, a windstorm is surrounding the city!"

The Mayor blinked again and chuckled, "Woman, you're going mad..."

"This is no time for your stupid antics!" Crista was not happy with this, "If you don't want to leave then I will go without you..." She turned away from the door, only to be greeted by the faces of several small children. "Why aren't you off pla..."

They cut her off before she could continue, "The wind is really bad! We couldn't get past it!"

"What do you mean? It couldn't have started up that quickly..." Her eyes moved up to the horizon. A bleak dark funnel had surrounded the village, a horrid looking thing. Lacking plenty of dry sand as it could use in Cleyra, the windstorm was pulling up whole chunks of earth, shredding up the ground and farmland right outside the village. But it wasn't staying still. It was moving... her eyes glanced up to the airship in the center of it. "Damn it!" The airship was floating slowly across, intending to shred the city and then likely move out to the less populated farming areas.

"My gods above!" The mayor took one glance at this from behind her, and turned to head towards the other side of the room, "Into the underground! We have to move immediately!"

"What about the people in the town!" Crista cried out, but the two less than brave men were heading towards the entrance to the now defunct underground factory. Crista seethed under her breath, "Go with them!" She told the children as she headed out. Rushing into the streets where several people were already looking out, she screamed, "Into the underground right now! Do it now don't ask questions! Just do it!"

The splinter of wood caught her ears, and she looked back to watch a tree from the outskirts plunged into the local general store. She felt her heart sink as she watched the edge... there was nothing she could do... the windstorm was digging deep into the ground now. It would dig their underground hiding place right up and destroy them. She stood there, staring, unable to help as the shopkeeper ran out of the shop only to be picked up by the wind herself. Struggling against the current, she was impaled through the glass of a neighboring window, disappearing inside before that building began to slowly tear asunder. Falling to her knees, she looked at the ground, watching her tears fall between her hands gripping the earth, "What are we to do... what have we done..."

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"This is all your fault!" Hal pointed directly at his brother as he heard the wind scream above them, the rumble of earth moving growing louder. In the distance, the creak of metal sounded out as the entrance to the underground chambers was exposed, the lift and windmill above being ripped to shreds slowly.

"What? You have no right to blame this on me!" Kapu shot back, sitting in the dark corner, where he imagined was the deepest most secure part of the compound, several children huddled around him as if he could keep them safe from the impending wind.

"Bullshit!" Hal screamed out, tears flowing down his own face in frustration, "You made the deal to produce those monsters! I told you that it wasn't a good idea! I told you it would end like this! I told you getting into the war trade will just bring war here!"

"Enough! You joined in just like everyone else!" their statements were broken off by the sound of the children huddled around crying. They both sighed, and Hal sat down across from them.

Hal finally said, "We could hide them in the machinery, they'd have the best chance there." The Mayor nodded quietly, and Hal put in one more snide remark, "I hope it was worth it brother."

There was a crack as the wind ripped open a nearby portion of the roof, a sledge of machinery tumbling out of the wind, and a rain of metal parts showering them. Kapu found himself in the main path and did his best to shield the children in front of him. In the end, he was never really sure he did. Tumbling to the ground, he felt them pulled away. By Hal? Or just by the wind, he didn't know. He felt his vision blur and screamed out as his hand felt around the thick metal rod now impaling his shoulder to the floor.

"I did not deserve this!" He yelled out defiantly, choking half way through, the blood whipping away from his mouth, tears blowing away from his eyes, his vision completely gone. There was another snap, a searing pain in the back of his head, then all went dark.

Above them, the airship still hovered safely in the eye of the storm as it moved slowly across the horizon. The winds died down once more, and it hovered over the deathly quiet of the former bustling farming village. The only sound now was the creaking of metal and stone settling into its grave, and the moan of survivors.. moans that quickly began to die away as well.

Kigaeno looked out upon the destruction, and called up to Mogu, "Time to go."

He looked over at Claire, sitting there at the harp, unwilling to look outside at what she had caused, exhausted from the strain of weaving such magics together, and tears streaming down her face. Kigaeno found himself smiling as he reached over and gently wiped her tears away, "Such an innocent one. I wish the world were as kind as you Claire."

She looked at him and nodded, "I will clean up... and maybe... take a nap on the way back.." she just wanted to be alone. She had wanted to be strong for him, but she knew she was not. She felt dirty inside, no better than Beatrix. But these people were guilty, weren't they?

Kigaeno didn't have such foolish hangups, or at least ones that he considered foolish. He let her be, and went back up onto the deck, pulling on his gloves as he took one last look at the scar in the earth that they were leaving behind, "And they thought I was just some idiot..." he looked at Mogu as he sat down, "It just goes to show, the dumber they think you are, the more surprised they'll be when you kill them."

Mogu found himself grinning at that, but answered, "The other Cleyrans aren't going to float along for our type of behavior forever."

"Oh..." Kigaeno started, "I think they will be okay for a while. Maybe not forever, but by then I will not need their aid. I can allow them to live peacefully while I clean up the remnants on my own." If there was one 'decent' thing about Kigaeno, he really did believe he was doing the right thing. And Mogu really believed him as well.

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Garnet sat at the table across from Beatrix and Steiner, and right besides her new 'King', Zidane. Zidane leaned back with his arms folded behind his head as she did most of the talking. If there was one good thing about him, she knew he would never try to stifle her way of doing things. That would, after all, be too much like work.

"Any other word from the Cleyrans? I was hoping the aid we sent to them and Burmecia would help.. its a pity that they didn't take it all."

Beatrix shrugged, "I'm not really surprised they would not allow a unit of Alexandrian soldiers to come help their construction, but at least they took the supplies we offered. This would be a lot easier if their new high priest wasn't having a conniption."

Steiner nodded, "Well I can understand their feelings, but we have to convince them that we are really only trying to help. They have nothing to fear from us!" Always the idealist.

Garnet nodded, "I agree, perhaps if we.."

She was broken off by a guard entering the room, followed by a very frantic moogle holding a letter, his fur frazzled and looking freaked out. The guard spoke, "Queen this messenger has urgent news."

Garnet blinked, and leaned down towards the frightened looking creature, "Now calm down sir.. and just tell me what you have to say. You are safe here."

After catching his breath, the moogle spoke, "My kupo is.. Gumo.. from Dali um..."

She nodded a little as the others stayed quiet, "I see Gumo, and how are things going.."

She sure gets broken off a lot, and this time by a rather disturbing statement, "They're all kupo-ed!"

Everyone at the table just about choked as he continued, "I got a letter letter see kupo? And it said 'Kupo nuts! Just for you!' Kupo." He pulled out a letter that appeared to have told the moogle that Mois, the moogle from the ice caves, wanted to make things right for something and had a bag of kupo nuts to share. As cute as this was, no one smiled, but listened to him explain more.

But he wasn't kupo! There was a kupo of kupo nuts just as promised but he wasn't. There was another kupo letter though!" He pulled out the letter. The bag of kupo nuts had no doubt been entirely consumed upon the way here, "And a chocobo kupo tied to a post! It said... well... kupo..."

Beatrix politely took the second letter, and read it aloud, "Do not reenter Dali if you value your life. Watch from the outside what is about to happen, then use the chocobo to go to Alexandria and tell them. Inform them that we will be waiting for them to surrender to our previously stated terms." She sighs and said. "Its signed Kigaeno Moondancer."

Garnet looked grim and asked slowly, "What happened Gumo..."

The little moogle teared up, "A windstorm kupo out of nowhere, I don't kupo where it came from.. there was an airship way up high and maybe they made it .. but it came out of nowhere and kupo-ed the town, then tore it up.. I went to kupo if there were people left but... I didn't find anyone alive...kupo."

Zidane hit the table from where he was, finally in the conversation, "I would like to ask Mister Moondancer how what he did was any different than the attack on Cleyra!"

"This is very bad..." Garnet stated the obvious, before patting the moogle's head, and nodding to the guard to lead him off to be taken care of, "Make sure this one has a place to stay, ask him for details then escort them to wherever they wish to go from here..."

She sat back up, laying the two letters on the table. Silence for a moment.

"We have to strike. We can't let them wield this kind of power over us!" Steiner put in his two cents.

"The only problem with that..." Beatrix said carefully, "Is that we would have to march our army through Burmecia to get to the area where Cleyra was. And even then... we aren't sure where they are. Or even if the mass of them is involved. Remember when Alexandria attacked Burmecia when you were Princess, not even you had been told what was planned... it could be that none of them even know what he did."

Garnet looked at the letter, tears welling up as she remembered the small city, the people she had spoken to.

Without any reply, Beatrix took a deep breath and stated, "Perhaps Queen.. perhaps it would be best if I turned myself over to Burmecia to be tried. Perhaps we could meet them half way in that manner.."

Steiner broke in, "Preposterous! You should not have to do such on the whim of a madman. It would mean nothing and it would tell them that they can push around Alexandria any time they have a demand!"

"Rusty's right." Zidane set forward; Steiner had gotten so use to the name given by Zidane that he didn't even notice when it had been spoken, "We need a small group to go in and take this guy out. Once he is gone they'll probably just want to live on their own. I remember these people.. and this isn't them."

"A lot has changed, Zidane. Even I admit the crimes committed were inexcusable, the innocent have been exposed to the world outside. Who knows what they might absorb from it."

Garnet shook her head and said, "I should go and meet him again.."

Steiner and Beatrix both objected in unison, "Your majesty you can't!" They both paused and Steiner added, "You are the Queen, you cannot go running off and putting yourself in danger, the people here need you. And.. " He hesitated to add, "They need the King as well. The both of you should stay here. I should go."

Beatrix thought, "Well.. perhaps they wouldn't see you in the same light as me... you know.. perhaps we should just hire someone else to take care of it. What's that guy.. the guy with the hair that looked like awful red carpet."

"Amarant." Steiner inserted, "I respect the man but I do not think we should resort to hiring mercenaries. We do not know where his loyalties might lie when they can be bought."

After yet another moment of silence, Zidane interjected quietly, "Sooo..."

"My queen." Beatrix stated definitively, "I do not mean to pressure you, but the situation is quite grave. If he opened that up in Alexandria city itself.. we need a command."

"We both are at your command my Queen." Steiner assured her, "We will do as you judge best, and will succeed."

Garnet took another deep breath before speaking, "The moogle said it was an airship. We need to keep control over unregistered airships. Secure our borders and have our fleet watch over the larger cities. If an airship refuses to identify itself then it will need to be dealt with at your discretion Generals... I do not think they can take the city, as I can summon Alexander to its defense still. Beatrix... I hate to order this, but have the army massed and ready to move across Burmecia if necessary. Make sure they know it is not there for them.."

They both nodded as she continued, "Inform Burmecia and Lindblum of what has happened. Request aid from Lindblum's ships if they will.. and send word... to Cleyra. Also send word to the Cleyrans at Daguerreo, enlist their aid if we can, they are more likely to be open to a passive solution and may can speak to their new... leader... we have to prevent another war, at all costs."

Truth be told, she knew they were already in another war. Or perhaps to Kigaeno the old war had never ended. Would it ever end?