If I'm Lucky

[04.02.00] » by David Schwager

            Edea watched the children playing.  In truth, she was doing more than watching, but for most people watching would be all they could see.  It would take a sorcerer or sorceress to see the powers she was wielding.  Of course, there pitifully few others with that power alive, and none who could do more than light a candle.  Except her, of course.

            There would be no knowing, of course.  Not until it was too late.  Edea wished she could be certain.

            She was sure of what she had seen and heard.  She was also sure that the man she had seen was Squall, grown up.  She didn’t know how, but if what he said was true, there might still be hope for her.

            If he did kill that sorceress, then it should work.  I wish I could be certain, though.

            Edea felt it tugging at her again.  It felt like someone pulling at her sleeve, except that her soul was the target, not a dress.  She knew the feeling well.

            Unconsciously, she slipped into…otherness.  She wasn’t sure of what she did, exactly.  Too much of what she did she couldn’t explain.  But she had no time to try.  She was surrounded by blackness, with a few bright points of varying intensity throughout.  Two blazed like the sun.  She knew them well.  They were connected by a shining line.  A similar line connected one of those points and her, although it was hazy and immaterial.  She knew what it was, and it would have sent shivers of fear down her body if she had one in this place.  It was a control line, and she was not strong enough to stop it.  She could resist, but it would get her eventually.  It already had a partial hold over her, and had implanted one command she could not disobey, no matter how hard she tried.

            LIVE.

            She could not commit suicide, and she somehow knew that the sorceress who was trying to control her was evil.  How she knew that, or even that it was a woman and not a man, she didn’t know.  But Edea knew she could not allow that other to gain control of her.

            The flows she made would make the children strong.  When they grew up, of course.  Stronger than any normal humans.  Would it be enough?

            She could feel the sorceress tugging at her again.  Edea thought she could hold out for a few more years.  Too much of the other was tied up in controlling that other firefly she had seen.  But would those years be enough?

            She hoped dearly it would be enough.  That and the Garden the older Squall had spoken of.  SeeD.  It sounded nice.  Thanks to Cid, it was already underway.  With luck, it would work, but Edea hated trusting to luck.

            It has to be enough.  There’s nothing else I can do.  If I’m lucky, it will work.  If I’m lucky, they’ll be able to kill me.