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The Crystal Rule	By : QueenDraggyofSwords Category: Final Fantasy Games > Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Views: 956 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy: chrystal Chronicles, any of its characters nor am I making any profit off of them.

Chapter List
- 46
- 47
- 48
Chapter Forty-Seven

"Keiss, you're a fucking idiot." Layle followed behind his agitated partner as the trio made their way back to his room. "You can't accept this mission! You're going to get killed!"
"I don't understand," Nadeen looked back and forth between the two, "Why can't he?"
"Everyone at that base will know him on sight!"
"Not to mention the anonymous buyer is obviously your damn friend, Clockwork!" Keiss looked back at Layle over his shoulder. "How is she even alive! I saw her fucking blow up!"
"Clockwork?" Nadeen rubbed the back of her neck, "You mean that girl from the desert? She's still around?"
"I guess so…" Layle watched as Keiss stopped walking in the hallway. The red head turned around scowling. Now that that they were away from the State Room and Vaigali's eyes he started ranting.
"Maybe she sent it before she was killed. Like a back up plan in case she failed. She's hired Selkie's before."
"But they weren't Guild Selkies…"
"But the Guild is a good group to hire. We're- I mean they're the best for this kind of work. Not to mention the idea of getting paid a hefty sum to rip off the Lilties is a good offer to Vaigali. Too good an offer."
"But she's a Lilty isn't she," Nadeen pointed out, "I'm sure if you tell Vaigali-"
"It's an anonymous buyer," Keiss held up the blue print. "There's not proof other than our word that it's her. And he'll just say I'm claiming that to get out of the task. Call me a coward, say I'm going against my word, that I'm not as good as I claimed-"
"Well," Layle rolled his eyed, "You were the one boasting about how great you were."
"Shut up, Layle."
"He has a point, you kind of put yourself in a bad position to back out."
"Nadeen, pretty sure you aren't supposed to be talking to me."
"We've been talking all afternoon! Don't bring that up now just because you're mad!"
The three stood in silence in the hallway. Keiss had his arms crossed, he was looking away from them, down the empty hall scowling at no one. Layle and Nadeen waited for him to say something. But what was there to say? Keiss knew Layle was right. If he got caught it would be the end of him. Even if he escaped, he'd never be able to show his face to a military official again. He'd have to enter a self imposed exile from Lilty society just as he had here. He'd have to take up life as a fugitive, or worse, come back to the Guild.
Come back empty handed and wrong. He shuddered.
But if we succeeded, if he stole the part that the 'buyer' requested, then Clockwork won. How was this happening? Did that lilac haired menace plan this? She couldn't have known it'd come down to this. She couldn't be that clever. She couldn't have survived.
He refused to accept defeat at the hands of Vaigali and the Lilty.
"There has to be away… To come out on top."
"Keiss?" His two partners stared at him.
The red head's eyes suddenly went wide. "There is no way, she knew I'd be the one to take this mission…" Keiss turned back to Nadeen and Layle with a smile. "She expects a Guild Member to take this job, and so a Guild Member will!"
"…What?" Layle looked at the orange haired girl, she shrugged at him. Nadeen was just as confused.
"Come on!" he motioned for them to follow him, "I have an idea."
"…I've heard this before…" Layle shook his head. "It didn't end well."
"Relax, Crystal Bearer," Keiss held up the blue print swaying it back and forth, "We're going to go see the girls."
"…The girls?"

Keiss led Nadeen and Layle through the ship's halls until they reached the back row just under the captain's room. The walls here were decorated with a bit of tapestry and silks hanging up over each of the doors. There were words written over each in the Selkie language, but nothing Layle understood. There was one room without any designation, it was this one that Keiss went into. He didn't knock, or say a word, the red head just flung the door open letting it slam.
The response from those inside was a loud shriek of horror that quickly died down as the occupants turned to see whom was so rudely barging in.
"Relax girls!" A blond haired Selkie female by the door spoke up, "It's just Keiss." She was sitting at a dresser with a mirror wrapping her hair up with cords and adorning seashells to the side. Around the circular room Keiss had slammed open there were several desk and mirrors and dressers and about five women in total. All of them at some stage of dress or accessorizing.
They turned their heads from the door and went back to getting dressed up. None of them were bothered by Keiss.
"Ladies, how are you this evening?"
"What do you want, Keiss?" A purple haired girl standing in front of a dresser pulling out gloves turned to face him. Layle and Nadeen looked over his shoulder.
"Yeah, Keiss what are we doing here?" The Leudian girl questioned him.
"What is this even?" Layle spoke up. He glanced at Nadeen.
"Whatever you're thinking it is, you're probably right."
"Now, girls," Keiss held up his hands as he walked forward, "I'm not here to take up much of your time-"
"Good."
"Great."
"We've got a dinner to get ready for so hurry it up."
The red head walked into the room and snatched a jewelry box off the closest desk. Immediately its owner protested as Keiss dumped the contents onto the floor.
"Not now, this is official Guild business," Keiss handed the empty container to Nadeen. He then opened a dresser drawer and pulled out a long skirt. When he ripped the ends of it the girl just about fainted. He tied the torn bottom together to make a make shift bag and handed it to Layle. "There."
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"
Keiss held up his hands, "Ladies! As you know I've been tasked by your dear Vaigali to do a job for the Guild. I'm here to collect supplies to complete that task."
"By destroying our stuff!?"
"Your stuff?" He chuckled, "Who buys you all this stuff? Do you buy it yourselves? With your money? From the work that none of you do?" He motioned around the room, "Or does Vaigali buy it? With the Guild's money? That he's spent his life acquiring and managing to build this place into what it is? To make your simple lives oh so comfortable?"
None of them responded.
"That's what I thought," Keiss looked across the way at the blond woman. She was holding a light purple scarf in her hand. "I want that." He walked over and snatched it from her hands and tossed it into Layle's bag. She protested but the red head silenced her. "You don't want to tell Vaigali you got in the way of a five hundred thousand gil job now do you?"
Keiss motioned for Nadeen and Layle to follow him around the room as he picked through the girl's possessions and over their outfits.
"What color is that eye shadow?"
"Sunset…"
"Give it to me," He took it out of her hands and dropped it in Nadeen's box. "Hey, does this look like its darker than my skin tone?" He took a compact from one girl and held it up to his arm for the Leudian Selkie's opinion.
"A few shade, yeah."
"Great, "He dropped it in the box, "I want everything that's that color. That's water proof." He snapped his fingers at the woman at the desk and she begrudging stood up to let him dig through it.
"…Keiss…"
"What is it, Layle?" The Selkie kept collecting make up from the girls.
"What are we doing?"
"Making a disguise- oh!" He pulled out a long white fur boa, "I'm taking this."
"But I just got that!" One of the girls tried to snatch it from him and Keiss pulled back, "Get another! Besides white looks terrible on you anyway." He dropped it into the bag and kept going.
"A disguise?" Layle looked down at the assortment of purple and tan bits of clothing and over at the box of make up Nadeen was now holding. "To to disguise you as what? Some sort of freakish purple monster?"
"Hey!" Keiss took a tube of lipstick from one girl, silencing her anger by telling her it made her lips look swollen anyway, "We are making a disguise of the most famous Selkie in history."
"…" Layle looked down at the bag, " Really because I think we're making a mess."
Keiss dropped the lipstick into the box, "You'll understand when we're done." He walked past Layle and Nadeen making his way toward the door, "Ladies! Thank you for your contributions-"
The girls scoffed, "Don't think we won't tell Vaigali about this."
"Go ahead and tell him!" He raised his hand and waved to them as he reached for the door, "I don't care."
The door swung open before Keiss could grab the door knob. On the other side of the door, standing in the hall, was the woman from earlier that had given Vaigali the message tube.
Her face appeared delicate, with her make up finely applied. Layle would have said she was radiant, if not for the scowl that graced her face. She had no visible tattoos on her body, despite all the skin that was showing. Her purple and auburn dress had open sides at her torso, and a long slit up the flowing white skirt on the right side. The outfit had no shoulders, though she wore gloves that came up to her elbows and a thick black choker around her neck. She stood just as Keiss' height, her violet eyes locked with his red ones in a heated stare.
"…Milka," the red head nodded to her. "Nice to see you."
"I wish I could say the same." She crossed her arms and eyed Nadeen and Layle, "What do you think you and your band of trouble makers are doing?"
"I'm collecting supplies."
"From us?"
"I'm doing a job for the Guild. So I am entitled to Guild items to complete it."
"That would be true if you were a Guild Member." She continued to glare at Keiss. Layle took note of the fact that the tension in air seemed to be rising quickly with this woman present. Before the girls in the room had just been annoyed, but this one… Even back in the State Room she seemed to have a clear dislike of Keiss, one she was obviously curbing in the face of Vaigali. However, now it was just the two of them, their disdain for each other was far from hidden.
"I don't have time for you, Milka. I've got a job to take care of-"
"Oh right, so you can get your latest boy friend free from those chains," She took a step to the side and let Keiss walk by. He didn't say anything to her but she did stop Layle as he walked by. "Appreciate this while it last. Because once he gets what he wants he's going to throw you away."
"Excuse you-" Keiss turned around on his heels before Layle could respond to her, "I'd appreciate it if you didn't make assumptions about what I will and will not do in the future."
"Assumptions?" She crossed her arms and leaned on the door chuckling. "Who's assuming anything? You throw everyone away, Keiss. Your friends. Your lovers. You'd have thrown your own family away if Vaigali hadn't kicked you out first." She rolled her eyes, "Hell, I'm sure if he could have known what a little shit you'd grow up to be, he'd have opted for her to throw you away instead of her own life."
"…" Keiss took a deep breath and ignored the awkward jab, "I left of my own accord, I was not 'thrown away', thank you very much. We didn't agree on anything accept that if I wasn't going to follow his orders, then I wasn't going to stay."
"Is that what you tell yourself to sleep at night?" She continued to laugh at end of each of her sentences. The conversation was obviously getting Keiss riled up, and not in an amusing way. Layle was sure the last time he saw Keiss get this upset was back on Lynari Island. "Is that what you tell everyone outside the Guild? That you left on your own? That it was your decision?"
"I tell everyone the truth, Milka. And that's the end of it." He turned around and motioned for the others to follow him.
"The truth!" She shouted after him, "The truth of it is, Keiss, you've never been truthful about anything. You paint yourself as better than us. Above us. So much more dignified. But in the end you're worse off and you know it." He stopped walking again and she pushed off the door to point at his back. "What have you accomplished on your own? Nothing! And what are you going to accomplish out there, pretending you're something you're not! Nothing! Everyone here knows that. From Vaigali down, without the Guild you are nothing."
The woman put her hands on her hips. "You haven't got anything to your name other than the infamy behind being an outcast. No Selkie wants you around. No Lilty wants you around. Clavats know better, so now you have to result to hanging around with the only things more reviled than you- Crystal Bearers."
Keiss turned back around to stare at her as she kept ranting.
"You really think they're going to let you in the Military? It's a joke and we all know it. Everyone is just waiting for the day when you come back and admit you were wrong. That you can't make it. That you won't make it. Everything you ever accomplished was done for you by the hands of the Guild. How many more years are you going to keep lying to everyone? To yourself, about it?"
Layle opened his mouth to say something in response to the woman but Keiss stopped him. The red head held up his hand in front of the Clavat's face as he walked past him back towards the woman speaking ill of him.
"Face it, after this job, you're going to have nothing but us to come crawling back to. So you may as well do it now." Keiss didn't say anything to Milka. He stared at her and she tilted her head at him, "Well! Say something, why don't you? Or are you still too proud at admit that I'm right?"
The red head slowly raised his hand, and for a moment both Layle and Nadeen thought he was going to smack the woman. But instead he reached forward and grabbed the choker around her neck. Keiss ripped his hand back and the clasp on it broke. She took a step back holding her neck startled. For a moment Layle caught the sight of a white skull wearing a gold crown tattooed on her neck.
"…Thanks, Milka. It's the last piece I need." Keiss turned back around and started walking. "Let's go."
The woman swallowed and started shouting again, "That's right! Just walk away! You stupid good for nothing! Keep walking! Before you know it, the Guild won't need you to come back! You'll be nothing but a forgotten wasted memory!" She punched the wall as he continued to ignore her. "You know good and well the guild would have been better off if Kei Nam survived instead of you!"
Layle looked back over his shoulder at the fuming woman. He turned to Nadeen who was looking at Keiss' back, "Kei Nam?"
"Shhhh!" She put her hand on his shoulder and kept him walking forward. They didn't speak the rest of the way back to the room.

As soon as they were back in the room Keiss had Nadeen dump the make up out onto the desk and had Layle dump the clothes onto the bed. Lotta the cat jumped into the pile of cloth and fur and began rolling around in it.
"Okay!" The red head clapped his hands, "Let's get to work." He started to pull out certain fabric and hand them to Layle. "I need you to cut holes in these on the sides of the legs. About down to the knees, but not past them."
"Why?"
"Just do it," He turned to Nadeen pulling out a brown coat. "I need you to cut this in half, and make two points at the end. Like a piece of armor and-" he picked up a tube of lip stick and drew a crisscrossed pattern on the wall. "Draw that on there."
"With what?"
"I don't know, go get some paint or something- oh! And while you're at it, get some purple and gold paint too."
She rolled her eyes and left the room to fetch some paint. Keiss discarded his armor and his shirt and started to pick through the make up using it to darken his skin and conceal the tattoos on his body.
"…Exactly what are we doing?"
"We're getting me ready for my mission."
"By dressing you up like a loon?"
"Layle, can you just do what I asked please?" He looked over at him slightly agitated. Under normal circumstances he probably would have mocked him. But the tone in his voice had just a twinge of anger to it. More than likely carried over from his argument with Milka. Layle set to work cutting up bits of fabric. Keiss kept handing him pieces telling him to cut certain patterns and shapes out of them, or to cut belts in half and remove the clasps from them.
Nadeen returned with the paint and set to work adding designs and stripes and recoloring buckles. Occasionally Layle would look up to see Keiss staring at the painting hanging on the wall. Usually at this time Nadeen was watching the red head too, but no one said anything about it. By the time Layle was coloring the ends of the white feather boa with orange paint, Nadeen was given the job of sewing up all the odd pieces. Keiss had managed to fabricate a decent tan on his skin, so it looked like he'd been out in the sun for a few hours. All of his old markings were practically invisible unless you studied his skin long enough.
He was now adding a strange dark red zigzag to his cheeks and arms. The Selkie had combed his hair and pulled it upward so it appeared shorter than it was. The ends had been folded and tucked and pined so his hair bushed out around the sides of his face and came cascading over his forehead in a large bang that curled just over his eyes. When he was done painting the pattern over his skin he took the purple scarf he'd had Nadeen paint the ends of and tied it up over his head. He knotted it in the front and pulled at the ends until one was larger than the other.
"Come here, Layle," Keiss held the longer piece at an angle upward and curved back over his skull. "Hold this." As soon as Layle had it in his hand Keiss picked up a can of hair spray he'd taken from the girls and started to spray it. The Selkie emptied the can onto his head and the scarf causing Layle to cough. He hadn't warned him he was going to make the air in the room unbreathable.
"Okay let go."
"With pleasure!" Layle backed up and hit the wall. He waved his hands in front of his face still coughing. Even Nadeen and the cat snorted over the fumes.
"Okay, Keiss, I think that's everything…" She raised her arm to her nose trying not to feel sick. The red head picked up the outfit the two had been piecing together for the past few hours and started to get change. It wasn't so much and outfit as it was an odd pair of striped purple pants with a protective covering, a few straps and adornments that crisscrossed over his chest, accented with the white boa cut up to go over Keiss' shoulders and around a pair of gloves.
The last piece was the black choker he'd taken from Milka. As soon as it was on Keiss held open his arms and smiled.
"What do you think!"
"Oh wow!" Nadeen clapped her hands together, "That's actually pretty good! Just like the real thing!"
"…" Layle tilted his head, "What are you supposed to be?" The two Selkies turned to him glaring. "What?"
"Don't you know anything, Crystal Bearer?" The girl rolled her eyes.
"I know that he looks crazy."
"It's alright, Nadeen, you can't expect uncultured hicks to be able to identify historical figures." Keiss crossed his arms, "Since you must be informed, Layle, I plan to raid Kilanda as a ghost."
"A ghost?"
"Yes!" He pumped his fist into the air, "A ghost that when identified will trace the theft back to the Guild, just like the train bandits. The founding father of the principles and doctrines that govern all honest thieves to this day!"
"Honest thieves," Layle leaned back on the bed, "Let's think about that for a moment…"
"It's a great disguise, Keiss. And it certainly won't make the Lilties turn to you as the culprit, but what if you get captured?"
"Captured?" He laughed, "Nadeen, I won't be captured. Seen, yes, but I want that. But they won't capture me; I am a master of stealth."
Layle shook his head, "Now I know I've heard that one before, and it did not end well."
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The Crystal Rule