Chapter 9 – Premonition

It was impossible to tell how old the girl was. She was tiny, shorter than Sora and as thin as a reed. Her posture told a different story, however; she stood confident with her back straight, a hand on her hip and an insolent look in her green eyes. Her hair was wild, a tangle of reddish blond, bound in the elaborate style that was considered fashionable in some of Rozarria's larger cities.

What am I doing here?

Sora stood in a row with a group of servants, facing the Rikku, a girl who had come to the palace with the lady Esmeralda. It had been a long time since Sora had seen any girl his age, although this… lady was probably older. He was reminded of Kairi, though the two looked nothing alike.

"In Bel'shar there is a brothel where they offer only boys and young men, and you are prettier than half the lads who work there," she said with a coy smile, "I'm liking this assignment more by the minute." She spoke fast, with a slight accent that marked her as a city dweller.

"Is that why we are standing here, all lined up in a nice, neat row?" Noel inquired, his country dweller slur as insolent as Rikku's, "so you can pick one of us to warm your bed for the night? I volunteer my services. I will curl your toes faster than any Bel'shar bed slave ever could."

Cloud let out a disbelieving tsk. The other men chuckled. Besides Sora, Cloud and Noel there were Hope, Snow, Leon, Seifer, Axel, Saïx and Tidus.

"You are a lusty one, I will grand you that," Rikku said, flashing a row of white teeth as she smiled, "I feel like I have come closer to understanding the Queen's eternal youth, with a band of strapping beardless boys like you to keep her entertained."

She moved to the beginning of the row, facing Snow. The two of them made for a ridiculous image together, with Snow twice as wide and towering over her.

"You're a giant, and no mistake. What's your name, boy?"

"Snow, m'lady, and I'm no boy," he replied in his usual, boisterous voice.

"Me, a lady?" she threw her head back and laughed. "freakish big and stupid to top it, you'll do just fine."

Next in line were Axel and Saïx . The girl took one look at them and shook her head.

"Red and blue hair will draw too much attention, and you have murderous eyes to top it off. The two of you will never do."

Axel opened his mouth to protest, but Rikku had already moved on to Cloud. She wolf-whistled. "Well aren't you a maiden's fantasy in the flesh. You're prettier than the Queen! Girls would rip each other to shreds for a chance to get naked with you… And maybe the Valkyries of Arcadia will too. I don't fancy facing one of them if things go sour. We'll dress you up all in white. You'll look so… pure."

Cloud turned his face away with a frown as she pinched his cheek. Noel chuckled. Rikku turned to him next.

"Ah, the lusty lad with the wild brown hair. We have a mindless brute and a blond pretty boy with the bluest eyes I have ever seen. What do you have to offer, mister loudmouth?"

"Aside from a night you will never forget? I can shave your legs with an axe, and have more wits than these other two you plan on taking."

The claim about the axe was true enough, Sora knew. Noel was the son of a lumberjack from the mountains in the north of Rozarria, and Sora had seem him hit a target between the eyes with a throwing axe from 20 yards away.

"An axe eh?" Rikku smiled her crooked smile. "We'll be needing men who can handle their weapons, true enough."

"All of us trained with sword and spear." Snow proclaimed.

Noel crossed his arms.

"I'll have you know I won't be taking orders from a woman. I'll have you on your knees with your mouth around my cock before I listen to any command you give me."

Sora shuffled uncomfortably. Noel was trying to impress the other boys, he knew, but the Queen was the one who ordered this mission, and Rikku was the one who had been sent to lead them, skinny girl or not.

Rikku laughed.

"Bold words from someone who is manservant in the Queen's palace. When last I looked, she was a woman too."

She drew a knife from her sleeve, and spun it around in her hand so swiftly it was hardly visible.

"If you want the command over this mission, you are welcome to try and take it from me. Sneak into my bed too, if you like. Once you've been gelded, you'll find it much easier to take orders from a woman, I'd wager."

Noel watched as she threw the knife in the air and caught it again, and he held his tongue.

Sora was next.

"Ah, a small runt with spiky brown hair…. You must be the wizard boy the Queen told me about."

Sora could feel the eyes of the others turning about towards him. His sessions with the Queen had been the subject of much speculation.

"You know some magic, if I'm correct? Basic enchantments and healing spells?"

"I do." He said solemnly.

"Then you are in, boy! Don't look so terrified. You look so innocent, the Arcadian guardsmen will never look twice at you."

She turned to Tidus, who was standing to Sora's right.

"Another youth. Unless you have any special talents, one green boy is quite enough for my like."

"I'm as good as any of them with the sword," Tidus proclaimed, "and I was the fastest runner in my hometown, and the best swimmer too."

"We won't be doing any swimming where we're going, I'm afraid. Unless we make a visit to the king's private pool, which I do not plan on doing. Stay home, boy, and work on your swordplay some more."

Last up were Leon and Seifer, older and more seasoned than the others. They had returned with another boy two days before. Sora still felt a dull anger when he looked at them.

"I've been told of you two as well. You are… recruiters, of a sort, if my information is correct. And the two best soldiers. You look like killers though, and that's no good. I will want you on the reserve, in case we run into any trouble."

"As you say." Leon said, his grey eyes as hard as ever.

Rikku took a step back to look at the group.

"So we have a giant who knows how to use a weapon, an angel with spiky blond hair and lips made for kissing, a lusty loudmouth who can shave a girls legs with an axe and undress her with his eyes, a boyish wizard's pupil and two seasoned killers at the ready if it comes to swords. They'll sing songs of our quest ten years from now."

"And which quest would that be?" Cloud asked, "are you actually going to tell us what we have been selected to do."

Rikku's eyes gleamed dangerously.

"Of course I will tell you. This assignment is a first for me, and that's saying something. We will be setting out to steal a princess, and stop a war while we're at it."

Sora had lost his way again. He had been living in the palace for more than a month now, but he still managed to get confused inside the seemingly endless winding corridors and passages. Perhaps it has even been more than a month. He had lost all sense of time since he had joined the palace's colorful inhabitants.

This is his fault.

Sora had gone to the royal chambers for his evening lesson, but instead of the Queen a smug-looking Riku had opened the door, informing him that the Queen was indisposed. Sora had asked why, only to be told that it was "not for the likes of him to know."

He probably does not know himself.

After that, Riku had the gall to invite him in for a 'bit of buggery' on the Queen's own bed, which made Sora so uncomfortable that he backed off blushing. When Riku gave chase, he dashed into the nearest corridor, and had run without stopping until he realized he could no longer hear footsteps chasing him, and that he did not have the slightest clue how to get to his own chambers.

He summoned an orb of light with a flick of his wrist, as the Queen had taught him in one of last week's classes. He was improving rapidly, and had achieved a level of control over his magical power that allowed him to cast some rudimentary spells.

"Spells are as simple to learn as words," the Queen had told him, "but magic is as difficult to master as a foreign tongue. No matter how often you use it, there is always a higher level of mastery, some subtlety that eludes you still."

He felt a little disappointed that there would not be a lesson tonight. They would be leaving for Arcadia in a few days, to kidnap the princess, Naminé, and Sora wanted to be armed with as many spells as possible.

He passed through more and more corridors, none of them looking remotely familiar. He knew he was in a part of the palace he had never visited before when he came across a set of steps that led down. He hesitated, then followed the stairs.

He came into a very narrow passage with a high ceiling. Through the high windows on his left he could see the shrubbery that lined the palace. To his right there were a number of openings without doors, in the shapes of leaves and leading to unlit rooms. Ahead he spotted the warm red light of a fire coming from one of the rooms.

That was a relief. One of the other servants had to be in that room, and if it was one of the friendlier ones he might even be shown the way to his room.

When he looked into the room it was Saïx he saw, kneeling in front of a massive hearth with his back turned to Sora. Apparently gazing into the fire.

Saïx was not the most amiable of the Queen's servants, but he was usually polite after a fashion, and Sora was about to call out to him when Saïx seemed to throw something into the fire and it turned blue.

Instinctively, he moved aside so that only his head peered through the opening. He knew that he was not supposed to see this, that Saïx had not sought out this secluded corner of the palace for nothing.

"My lord," Saïx spoke, apparently to the flames, "I have done as you asked but… is it truly wise to converse this way? This is an abandoned corner of the palace, but some of the others say the Queen knows everything that happens within these walls…"

"Saïx," the voice replied, a deep voice that was somehow smoldering, coming from the fire, "there are those who claim that the whore queen knows everything that happens in Rozarria, and others still who swear that she knows all that has happened, is happening, and will happen in the future, anywhere in the world. They are fools. Conjurers and sorcerers love nothing more than to exaggerate their powers so that the world fears them all the more. Remember that."

"As you say." Saïx murmured. He sounded apprehensive, afraid even, and that frightened Sora more than he could say. Saïx was not a fearful man, and whoever was speaking to him through those blue flames must be a terrible individual.

"The bond of flame was used long before the whore queen came to power. She will not never know we spoke. Your raven told of a visit by the High Executor, that cloaked schemer Xemnas. Tell me of it."

"He met with the Queen in private, my lord. It… it seems there will be a war."

"A war? So Arcadia has finally decided to look for conquest beyond the sea. That king is a fool."

"My lord, the Queen does not seem concerned. It is said the High Executor pleaded to call the banners and summon every able-bodied man to arms, but she dismissed this suggestion."

"Did she? How arrogant. Even if her magic is enough to hold off Arcadia, having a standing army on the reserve would be prudent."

A silence fell. Sora could see Saïx' tension in the way his shoulders sloped. Then the voice spoke again.

"This war is the opportunity we have been looking for. You must find the relic before it starts."

Saïx seemed to shiver despite the warmth.

"We have been searching tirelessly, my lord, as you instructed… But we think the relic lies in the catacombs below the palace, the gates of which are sealed with spells we cannot break."

"You can break it using the old magic."

"My lord, we cannot… It would be impossible to take one of the other servants while the Queen is in the palace."

"She will have to leave it soon, if she truly means to hold off Arcadia with sorcery. Wait for that moment… and then strike. Kill one of the whore's menservants, and break the seal with blood and magic, and find me my relic."

Sora inhaled sharply at the mention of a murdered servant, and ran out of the corridor as fast as his legs could carry him when Saïx started to turn around, the echo of his footsteps resonating through the empty passage ways.

When he had finally found his way to his own chambers, Riku was lying on his bed.

He must have been waiting for me and fallen asleep.

Lying on his side with his pale lips slightly parted, the older boy seemed almost gentle, at peace. It was classic Riku, being unable to accept Sora's refusal and unwilling to go to bed without his nightly pleasure. Sora found it weirdly endearing.

He never stayed the night in my room before, Sora realized, oddly aroused. Still shivering from what he had seen, he snuggled up to Riku's tall shape, and pulled the blanket over them both. After blowing out his candles, he rested his head on the older boy's strong chest, taking in how good it felt to hear his heartbeat. Then he fell into a sleep haunted by images of fire and blood.