Disclaimer: All rights for the Final Fantasy series goes to Square Enix. This story is a fan fiction in this franchise universe, categorized under fan fiction.
This story is obviously fiction. This story will also involve sexual and intimate relationships between two (or more) males, and if this offends you or it is illegal for you to be reading, then please leave. If you are under the age of consent for your community, please leave. And if it does offend you, I honestly don't know why you're even here in the first place. I mean, seriously. Come on.
Final Fantasy: Rosa
II
On Trial
As Madame Jessica set the silverware on the long dining table, she yelled into the kitchen in the other room. "Maids! Maids, please try and make the soup at least palatable this time. Thank you."
One of the maids, harried from throwing out the chicken soup at Madame Jessica's order for the fourth time that night, stirred in more salt with such passion as though it would save her life. Madame Jessica quietly opened her feathery fan and brushed it on her ornate silk dress, so as to relish in the decadent sound. She smiled, and as she did the mole on her right cheek moved up her face several inches.
Madame Jessica heard the manor door open and shut, and opted to continue lying on the lounge's spacious couch. The butler announced the name quite loudly through the house. "Master Brently has returned home!"
Master Brently entered the foyer, perched his monocle higher on the bridge of his nose, and threw his tall umbrella at the butler. It wasn't raining outside, but Master Brently despised the idea of walking in the manner of a simpleton. Master Brently stood with his hands behind his back, looming over Madame Jessica. "I say! The whims of a Wo-man! Lying down when she should be preparing her hus-band supper!"
Madame Jessica started to her feet, giving a coquettish laugh and flicking her fan in front of her face. She suddenly spoke high and restrained. "Master Brently! Why, what a ludicrous assumption! That I, a well-to-do wo-man, would-"
"I quip! I quip!" Master Brently let out a deep, regal laugh. He raised on of his hands to his upturned moustache and curled it quite twittily. "Wife, would you join me at the dining table?"
Madame Jessica coyly blushed and curtseyed, a raging battle with her dress that would not let her bend her knees while standing. She sat down on one end of the dining room table, and Master Brently joined her at the very far end.
Master Brently yelled at the top of his lungs. "Maids! Maids, the appetizers! Posthaste, no ado!" The butler, still recovering from being hit in the chest with an umbrella walked past, and Master Brently caught his attention. "I say, light some candelabras, man! This empty table is a display of savagery!" The butler, in his fantasy, shot Master Brently in the head and wiped the blood off of his coat before saying "yes sir" and striding out the dining room. Master Brently gave a very self-satisfied smile to Madame Jessica, who somehow found anything arousing while imprisoned in a corset.
The maids rushed out of the kitchen. As they set the table with a banquet, one poured soup in to Master Brently's bowl, who proceeded to not-so-discreetly grab her tush as she walked to Madame Jessica. The maid nervously ladled the soup into Madame Jessica's bowl, who gave her a savage glare as if it were the victim of sexual harassment that was at fault. The maids scurried away.
Madame Jessica daintily sipped the soup, but dropped the spoon and scrunched up her face. "Why, I-I don't know what the problem is. I told that maid to put salt in the soup."
"My love, please." Master Brently quickly poured water into his own soup. He cleared his throat. "Butler?! Butler!" The butler rushed into the dining room, clutching golden candelabras in his arms. "Ah, good, there you are. For a second I was fearful we wouldn't have ambiance with our supper."
The butler placed the candelabras on the table. Madame Jessica's ears perked up. She tweaked her head just slightly. "Dah-ling. Do you hear that?"
Master Brently raised his eyebrow above his monocle. "Pardon?"
"It's the most curious thing. Some sort of... infernal mumbling. Shh, dah-ling, listen."
The only sound was of the butler as he set the candelabras on the table. Master Brently and Madame Jessica looked up at the ceiling: there was a soft noise, just barely audible. It was a woman's voice. With enough concentration, they could make out several words.
"...conscience...wash away... silent sea..."
Suddenly, the butler fell to the floor, the last candelabra clattering on the table. Madame Jessica and Master Brently, in near unison, drooped in their chairs. Their faces fell straight into their respective soup bowls.
In the silence, the same voice from before rang out a little louder. "Gods of cosmos, rend space with swiftness! Warp!" The brief sound of crackling lightning flickered in the dining room. With a pink flash, two figures appeared.
One was a woman. She was short and skinny, dressed in a combination of dark and light; a pink and black tunic that complimented her figure, and dark tights with a skirt that were both subtly pinstriped. She had pale skin, and her strange platinum-pink hair was hidden under a beret. Her eyes were an intense gold. She had a dull wooden rod slung on her back.
The other figure was a man, also docked in all black clothes. He was lean and lithe, the body of a gymnast; he wore a muscle shirt with a small, tight black vest on top, both of which leaving his toned arms bare. They were short enough to expose part of his well-built abs. His hair was straight and pitch black, but stylishly mussed up and tussled so as not to get in his dark eyes. He had a very long piece of cloth wrapped around his neck and trailing behind him, made of a tattered red material. He bore a large belt slung around his waist, and a second one draped over the first. The second one was filled with sheaths for knives. Both he and his companion wielded the energy of youth; his face was clean and handsome. He gave a very charming smile, briefly tightening his fingerless gloves and looking over the dining room. "Nice work, Adrienne."
Adrienne also grinned, walking over to the rich woman asleep in her soup. She pulled the rich woman's face up, and the liquid dribbled down onto her elaborate dress. "Aww. Too bad, I kinda wanted to take the dress." She looked up to the other end of the table. "Tori. The dude's gonna drown if you don't help him."
Tori rolled his eyes as he walked over. His gait was agile and silent. "Must I?" Tori grabbed the rich guy upright by his hair and didn't fix the monocle covered in soup.
Adrienne procured a canvas sack from her pocket, flipping it open. She had a savage grin on her face. "Now how `bout some lootin'?" She traveled along the table, gathering the fancy candelabras into the sack. Tori frisked the guy's suit, pulling out a large pouch filled with rattling coins. He expertly tossed it into the sack Adrienne opened up.
It didn't take long to fill up Adrienne's sack, mostly with the expensive silverware and some fancy looking antiques from the lobby. Tori rendevous'd with her in the dining room again, as he hugged an ornate portrait to his chest. It was as big as him, and he had trouble holding it in his arms. "Think we can fit this?"
Adrienne shrugged. "Sure, try." Tori fumbled over and stuffed the portrait into the corner of the bag. It barely fit, and protruded obscenely.
Tori sighed, wiping his hands on his pants. "Shit. That's all we got room for."
"Eh, what can you do. It'll feed us for a month or so." Adrienne closed the sack as much as she could, and hauled it to the door.
Tori heard a fumbling noise behind him. He turned around to find the butler waking up. Tori rushed to his side, helping him up. As soon as he was awake, Tori patted him on the shoulder. The butler gave him a strange look, and Tori motioned to the upstairs. "We didn't have enough room to loot the bedroom. I'd get up there before these guys wake up." The butler contemplated for a second before quickly starting for the stairs.
Adrienne flung the door open, and Tori helped her lug the sack outside onto the street. It was a cold night out, and this part of Calledone was mostly empty at this hour. The cobblestone pavement was illuminated by the magically powered street-lamps.
By the time the two of the reached the gates leading out of the high rises, the streets became more crowded. Night-crawlers mostly; late shoppers, those desperate for sustenance, others simply loving the moonlight. Tori and Adrienne were sure to move quickly through the crowded main square, and past the marketplaces still bartering goods late into the evening.
It had become such a routinely traveled path that Tori and Adrienne reached the old orphanage in no time, even weighed down with a humongous canvas bag. Adrienne was too young to remember it, but every time Tori came in he remembered how it used to be: bright, cheerful, sheltering. But a Dostravi bomb "accidentally" missed its mark and blew a good west part of the building to pieces, and now the place was deserted.
That is, except for those who were quick enough to claim new territory as soon as the Dostravi inflation became too great to handle. Tori and Adrienne were some of the lucky ones- they had claimed a room long ago in anticipation of their own poverty, and the rest of the orphanage was now populated by thieves not horrendously different than themselves.
Tori's lips hardened to a thin line, as he jumped over a drunk neighbor and helped Adrienne bring their winnings into their room. She emptied the sack out on her ragged bed, and smiled. Adrienne passed her fingers through the silver and gold ware (and over the very gaudy portrait), dividing it into several piles. "Okay. So we'll give these to the Warrens. I don't think Daryl deserves as much this time, considering how we just saw him drunk on the floor... But Jimmy and Wedge are running low, so I'll give them some of these- you remember Wedge, right? He helped us out last month, you know, when-" Tori made an affirmative noise and Adrienne moved on. "Oh, and I think Janet needs a bigger share, cos she's pregnant and all, so she can't steal anything anyway."
"What about Seb?"
Adrienne stopped. She gently dropped a gold fork into one pile, and turned around. "Tori, Seb was poisoned real bad. Antidote isn't cheap, and he isn't looking too good either way." Tori looked disappointed, and he averted his eyes to look out the window. Adrienne spoke up from behind. "Look, it's not like I don't wanna help him. He was a good guy, and he was probably the only one who could steal as much stuff as we could, but it's up to us now. We have to make sacrifices as we go."
Tori blew out slowly. "Yeah, I know. But I just wish we could save him..." Tori spoke a little slower, recalling. "Remember? He was the first guy to actually share the stuff he got. That was amazing."
"Mmhmm."
"And we can't abandon anyone, especially if they need us more than ever."
"Uh huh."
"And Seb was always there for everyone else-"
"Okay! Okay, fine, I'll give him a share from our pile! Gosh, you're such a dick, Tori."
Tori laughed, his work done. As Adrienne redirected her attention to the loot, Tori looked further out the window. Their window led straight to the main street, so it had to be barred. But Tori could still peer through the glass and have a great view of what was going on.
Something seemed amiss all of a sudden. Tori redirected his glances to the people at the marketplaces; they were gathering around the sides, clearing the main road in anticipation of something. Tori heard the clacking of talons on stone. He craned his neck further, and watched as two chocobos, the regal white kind of immense importance, dragged a black carriage down the road.
Tori's interest was piqued. He turned to Adrienne. "Adrienne. I'm going out." Adrienne just grunted, and Tori nearly flew out their room and out of the orphanage. He got outside in time to see the tail end of the carriage. It was headed up the main road, and ascended the hills; Tori knew it would head for the palace.
And nothing ever went to the palace by chocobo.
Tori turned to an young man next to him, also observing the carriage. "Hey, d'ya know what's up?"
"Well sure. Some General guy went out in the airship, and he destroyed Mysidia."
Mysidia sounded vaguely familiar to Tori. He searched his mind, and remembered that it was a town of mages. But they were friendly, and they always had a strict peace treaty all around. Tori snapped back to it. "So?"
"So? So? So an entire city was destroyed! But that's not all. I bet that carriage you just saw is all the treasure that the General took from Mysidia."
Tori raised an eyebrow. "I thought you said he destroyed the whole city."
"Yeah, yeah. But Mysidia, it's a buncha mages and wizards. They got all kind of magic stuff that doesn't ever get destroyed! And it's all worth a fortune!"
Something sudden, irrational, struck Tori at the word "fortune." He briefly waved "thanks," and the guy nodded. Tori flew up the main street, whizzing past people at the speed of wind. He was always fast and always agile, and his speed had got him out of a lot of tight spots before. But Tori hoped he would be fast enough to catch the carriage in time.
As he climbed the final steep hill, the houses becoming more and more affluent as went, Tori saw it in his sights. As he anticipated, it was still stopped in front of the palace gates, being looked over by guards. Tori stopped in his tracks, crouching down by a conveniently placed conifer tree behind a street-lamp.
Tori closed his eyes, pressing his palms together. "Meek light, be my graceful guide. Invis." He felt a tingling along his spine, and a cold sensation all over his skin. He knew it had worked.
Unseen from the invisibility spell he cast, Tori quickly jumped behind the carriage. One of the guards thought he heard something and looked over, but quickly dismissed it as a cricket. He spoke several more words to the driver before motioning to another two guards at the top of the gates. They, in turn, worked several high-tech machines that cued a soft rumbling indicative of the palace wall opening. Tori took his chance, silently jumping up and latching onto the back of the carriage. He heard the chocobos yell "Wark!" and the carriage sped up again.
This was the first time Tori had actually seen the palace up close, and he had to admit that he was impressed. There was an utter fixation with pillars- pillars upon pillars upon pillars, white ivory ones, dark marble ones, all adorning the garden or looming over the path they were traveling or holding up the grand palace itself. Calledone was now the Dostravi Empire's capital, and the elusive Calledone Palace was seldom seen by anyone but the most important of officials.
Tori fell off of the carriage when it stopped unexpectedly, in front of the gates to the actual palace. He was afraid someone had heard him briefly cry out in pain, but the guards were too distracted by something. Tori heard the sound of the carriage door opening. A large company of guards escorted someone out. Tori tried to see who it was, but his view was blocked.
One guard gave the driver a ring of keys, and the driver proceeded to unreign the chocobos and lead them to the far-off stables. Tori gave a wide smile (of course, unseen) and leapt to his feet. He quickly swung into the carriage; a disappointed scowl shuddered onto his face as he swept the inside. Nothing.
Tori fingered the velvet seats for something, checked the floorboards, even looked at the ceiling; nothing was there. He cursed to himself. All that for nothing! Who was the moron that told him there would be treasure? But then again, who was the idiot that believed him... Risking his life, sneaking into the palace walls undetected, only to find himself without even a smidgen of-
-and then he remembered. He snuck into the palace walls undetected. An even bigger smile crept to his lips.
Tori jumped onto solid ground and looked to his right at the looming palace. The guards were talking amongst themselves, and seemed quite somber for some reason. Tori saw light pouring from the tall gothic windows, and giggled when he saw several balconies on the second story. "Piece of cake." he thought to himself. Tori got a running start, and jumped onto one of the pillars. He got enough traction and expertly climbed it to the second floor balcony. It was an open terrace, so Tori slipped inside.
He was standing on red carpet. Tori nearly gasped from the luxurious cushiness. Of course, there were more pillars in here too. Tori marveled at the interior design. The story he was on simply comprised of a hallway that lined the four edges of the room, a bit like a picture frame. It wasn't connected to the first story by staircase or any means, but Tori could effectively observe what was going on below him, since the inside of the hallway was simply a railing that overlooked the bottom floor.
Curiosity overcame Tori, as he wondered exactly who was being escorted from the carriage. Suppressing the urge to go to one of the other doors in the hallway and partake in some pillaging, Tori made his way to the railing across from him, peering down.
It was quite a strange sight. From the palace doors, a long red carpet led into the room, in stark contrast with the white marble floor. On the far end of the carpet was an old man, dressed in the most formal Dostravi garb, strict and uptight. He sat in a large ornate chair, and grasped a scroll in his right hand. He was of course, decorated with guards to his left and right. Lining the two edges of the carpet was a series of men also dressed as formally as the old man, arms folded behind their backs, chins upright. Tori couldn't count how many there were, but he guessed about two dozen. Not at all surprisingly, Tori saw yet more guards.
But then something caught Tori's attention. A figure was being led by two heavily armored knights with spears down the red carpet. Tori couldn't see much of the figure, due to the fact that his or her face was obscured by a white hood. The figure was dressed in traditional white mage robes: long, baggy white cotton with red triangles on the trim. However, Tori could see that the white mage was shackled- with heavy chains that loudly clanked with every footstep. The figure's arms were bound together, and Tori could only assume the same for the figure's legs under the robe.
The knights led him to a stop a good two yards away from the old man. The old man examined the white mage carefully, adjusting his spectacles. He unraveled his parchment. "Silver. White Wizard for the AS Ruby. Correct?"
Tori heard the white mage talk. Tori heard the voice of a male, although it was gentle and soft-spoken. "Yes."
The old man nodded. He returned his attention to the parchment. "You were tried for the attempted insubordination of the Dostravi Empire, and declared guilty in the city of Altamine. You will now receive your sentence here, in Calledone. Please describe the nature of your crime."
The white mage named Silver seemed reluctant to speak. He waited several seconds before letting his voice ring out. "I refused to carry out my General's orders."
"Why would you do such a thing?"
"Because a white mage is not allowed to kill. He asked me to kill."
Again, the old man nodded and looked at his paper. "Very true, understandable. But now... now, it also says here that you are part of the Rebellion. Is that true?"
"Yes."
"And I'm sure you're aware that being part of the Rebellion warrants an automatic death penalty."
"...Yes."
The old man looked serious. "Then you know the sentence that we must carry out."
Tori's mouth involuntarily opened in outrage. Silver's clear voice now cracked. "Do what you will. I will not renounce my own beliefs."
"Very well then. This shall be a quicker matter than I thought." he stood up, addressing the men that lined the carpet. "Does the council agree?" Unanimous noises of affirmation. Tori saw Silver's white hood bow down lower in shame. The old man spoke loudly. "Silver, White Wizard, is sentenced to death by spell. The sentence shall be carried out tomorrow morning, by the hand of the Black Archwizard. Sirs, please escort him to the dungeon. Sentencing adjourned."
The heavy sound of rattling chains restarted again, and the knights hauled the white mage away. A heavy silence hung over the guards, several shooting apologetic looks before returning their gaze to the floor. The last thing Tori saw was a flash of Silver's face- only enough to reveal a gentle pair of blue eyes -before he was taken into a heavy door and vanished from sight.
-+-+-+-
To be continued...
Hello there,
Alright, gaining a little momentum. I have this kinda strange cycle with all my stories, they're all two days apart so... sorry if it seems like it's taking a long time. I'm not forgetting any of them, honest :D.
And so we have a protagonist! Both Tori and Adrienne are... um, interesting people. I have some pictures of the characters they were based on, so if you're interested you can email me :). Anyway, the point is now the plot can go somewhere! Yay!
Thanks for reading this far ^^.
Questions? Comments? Recommendations? Fan Mail? Hate Mail, maybe? Wanna just chat? Email me at ThePleiadesCall@gmail.com . Love to hear from you!
If you like FF Rosa, maybe there's the very vague possibility you'll like other stories I've submitted:
Charmed Reborn (Celebrity), Pokemon: Amethyst (Celebrity), Teth (Fantasy), Diana Celes (High School), and Hallow (Sci-Fi/Fantasy).