8: A Remembered Opera
“Yo! Setzer!”
Setzer finished slipping into his uniform jacket as he turned toward the voice. Sabin approached, apparently on his way to the café there in Kohlingen. Setzer adjusted the jacket and the sleeves of his shirt within. “What is it, Sabin?” he asked with a smirk. “If you want help with your plot to get the opposites to attract, count me out. He’s your brother.”
Sabin laughed and came to stand by Setzer on the little bridge near the café. “The day I can’t handle Edgar is the day I beat you at cards.”
Setzer’s smirk evolved to a grimace. With as distracted as I am here? “Then what is it?”
“Saw you leaving. Where you headed?”
Setzer made sure his things were in the proper places. “Unfinished business,” he said absently.
“You too? Well, take it easy.” Sabin sent the gambler a farewell salute before resuming his trek to the café.
Setzer continued out of town to the Falcon. He had hoped to find trace or hint of Marée in Zozo when they’d arrived there with Terra in search of her children, but Lady Luck had been in a foul mood. She hadn’t given him the time he needed before whisking him off to Jidoor. It had been there the itch to find something had settled deep. There that Lady Luck had made him notice the machinery from Figaro, the books from Thamasa, and the general stench of those people that called Zozo home. All of which, to him, totaled one thing: Marée.
Now Terra was on the road to recovery. The surgery removing the Empire built mind-control equipment had been a success. The man responsible – Ledo Grikea – was now dead, and Setzer felt the push to move on. So that’s what he planned on doing. Lady Luck, I’ve been patient with you and your sisters the Fates. Now I want something in return. Even if he had to make his own Luck.
Setzer pushed forward on the throttle and steered the Falcon toward Jidoor. Marée would be mad enough to spit fire when she found out that her unknown cargo was suspected in the manipulation of Terra. Setzer had a feeling Marée felt the same desire to protect Terra from the evils of the world as the rest of them. Terra wasn’t a Lander in the normal sense of the word. The young woman had lived a rough life while making the best of it. Marée would respect that, as he did. She would also have come to love Terra’s devotion to friends. Loyalty was a sought after commodity in the seaman’s life.
Setzer smiled, but it was more smirk than anything. I wonder if this loyalty follows her to her heart? Her thirst and hunger for adventure had likely led her to many a man and many a ‘distraction’. When she got her fill of him, Setzer would probably find himself cast to the wayside the same as the others. The expectation satiated, she’d move along.
Setzer released a deep breath. Memories would be enough. Hadn’t he said as much at their meeting in Kohlingen? She was married: to the sea. He was simply an amusement, and he knew that to be true. Wasn’t she the same for him? A key to a rush of blood and emotion that he hadn’t had since the adrenaline of Kefka’s Tower. They were using each other. They knew it. They expected it. They were waiting for the end of the . . . allure.
Setzer guided the Falcon a safe distance past Jidoor and anchored it. Expectation had been replaced by dread and the resignation of a too-soon ending. Ah well. Each hand must end. Whether I’m the loser or the winner is all in the way the game is played. Setzer followed the statement with a smirk and a nod to the rear guards before leaving the Falcon.
Jidoor bustled with activity as people, dismantled those rooms of technology used to destroy innocence. Instead, the machinery would be put to a different use. To the use of life and living. Setzer nodded several greetings to the people hurrying past. Their excitement would likely irritate Marée due to the fact her life differed so much from theirs.
Setzer saw beyond that. Marée understood the life of a Lander, even though she’d deny it. She understood it because he knew that at one time everyone’s life had been as simple. Fate and Luck had just molded Marée and Setzer according to a different set of rules and expectations.
Setzer retrieved his newest deck of cards from his jacket pocket and absently shuffled them. He hadn’t yet flipped the top card. He hadn’t yet asked Lady Luck for a hint. He had decided to keep a little back from them. One side of his lips twitched, and he raised his eyes from the deck. The auctioneer approached with a purposeful stride.
Setzer tucked the deck back away and retrieved his not-so-charmed dice. He clicked them together in a circle at a steady pace. “What can I do for you?”
“You’re the one with the airship, right?”
The dice paused. “Yes.”
“Would you be willing to take a shipment to the Opera House Impresario? I’ll pay you 500 gil now, and he’ll pay another 1,500 when you arrive and drop off the shipment.”
“And what is this shipment?”
“Some of the machinery from that madman’s contraption. We’ve no use for it, but the Impresario seems to think he can make something of it. Probably hired that crazy inventor again.”
“Cid?” Setzer’s eyes twinkled with memories of the Vector engineer.
“That’s the one.” The auctioneer scoffed moments before presenting Setzer with a bag of gil that sounded a little more than 500 gil. “Here. I’ll get the loading started.”
The auctioneer gave a curt nod and then made his way back. Setzer moved his silver eyes back to the bag of gil with a raised eyebrow. The Opera House had once been a frequent jaunt for him and his original airship. He smiled and tucked the gil safely away as he absently clicked the dice in his other hand. An interesting turn. But not an unpleasant one. Maria had been a consuming distraction at one time. Seeing her and hearing her lovely voice would be a welcome visit to the past.
And a needed distraction from aquamarine eyes.