After Kuja's defeat and Zidane's return, things had dramatically improved for the world at large. Alexandria, Lindblum, and Burmecia had largely rebuilt, and even Cleyra was back on the map, though none dared venture into the ruins of the old tree. The Black Mages and genomes had moved to Alexandria from the Black Mage village, and even the problem of the Black Mage's limited lifespans had been solved.

Mikoto had realised that as a prototype, Vivi was actually built with a normal lifespan. Kuja had deliberately made the mass produced models less long-lived, possibly to ensure that Brahne could not deploy them against him later on. Further testing found that with the bodies of the Black Mages who had stopped, they found that a blood transfusion from Vivi could cause dramatic alterations and rapid repairs.

The end result was that the Black Mage would be revived, retain all memories, and so far, have apparently normal lifespans, but with one change: They regressed to a physical age estimated to be no younger than five and no older than fifteen, when most had been built to look perhaps twenty or older.  The presumed cause was that much of the body was cannibalised for spares, so to speak.

It seemed the length of time since shutting down was the key factor: Too long and revival was sadly impossible. But, the longer they had been stopped and assuming they had not been stopped too long, the younger the resulting "improved" Mage looked. Some of the Black Mages who had undergone this process regarded themselves now as Vivi's children, to the confusion of many when they had attended the play in Alexandria where Zidane made his return. It had been cleared up soon enough.

They also looked slightly different: when not hiding their faces behind shadow, the old Black Mages had extremely pale skin and had resembled corpses, another of Kuja's cruel jokes in creating them to be far less efficient than his prototype. Now though, those who had been revived had the same human-looking features of Vivi, but the natural shyness that the Black Mages had meant very few knew this fact.

For much of the party, the present held new-found responsibility. Vivi was now a father figure to other Black Mages, Zidane was adjusting to castle life and engagement to Garnet. Garnet herself of course had been officially crowned Queen. Steiner had increased responsibility as the Queen's guard. Freya was rebuilding Burmecia. Quina was the castle chef. Only Armarant had went back to normal life, taking as much responsibility as he wanted, for he had always been the most independent of the group.  For the eighth member of the party who had saved the world however, there wasn't quite enough responsibility. Her new life was better, yes, but it could be so...

"Boring!" Eiko said, lying back on her bed after another long and dull session being taught Mathematics.

Since being adopted by Cid and Hilda, she hadn't changed much. She might have been a little more polite, and may have been getting the education expected of her new role as a princess, but she wasn't doing anything fun. Everyone in Lindblum seemed to be worried at her idea of fun as well, but people hadn't been telling her important things at first so no wonder, she thought, that things that looked fun to her caused problems.

For instance, how was she to have known the cannons were loaded? And any time she tried to explore the parts of the castle that were off-limits, someone always found her and took her back to the boring already-charted parts. Often they reminded her she was still a child, and then said what she did was unladylike, which was just confusing. How could she be a child and a lady? It didn't make sense.

'At least we're going to Alexandria soon.' She thought, switching tracks to think about the trip.

It was her ninth birthday soon too, a week before they were to go to Alexandria. She hadn't been sure what her real birthday was except sometime in March, so Regent Cid and Queen Hilda had decided to set the date they had adopted her as her birthday since by chance, it had been in March as well. She remember she hadn't decided what to ask for as a present. that was when she had a brainwave.

'Garnet's a Queen and she doesn't have to learn any maths. People don't stop her wandering around the castle. So, if I was a queen, I could do what I want. Miss Tabitha says I'm in line to Alexandria's throne too...' She recalled, something her etiquette teacher had said once when Eiko had wondered why she had to be more polite to a particularly rude Alexandrian noble.

'I think I know how I can be a Queen for a little while... but not here. Mother doesn't do much but sit around. she doesn't really get to boss anyone around except Father. But Alexandria is different...'

Eventually, she had her plan.

***  

Eiko liked visits to Alexandria for many reasons. She had a little more freedom, for a start. Whilst soldiers watched her every move in Lindblum castle, and didn't let her go anywhere alone except maybe the bathroom by herself, in Alexandria she could walk around with Vivi and the guards thought she was safe enough. She assumed this was because the  twelve-year old Black Mage might still have been a little nervous, and still very easy for her to drag around and manipulate despite his own responsibilities, but he remained one of the most powerful Mages on the planet.

She was blissfully oblivious to the fact that she was actually surrounded by undercover Knights of Pluto and members of Squad Beatrix in most of these walkabouts, but luckily had never done anything to cause enough trouble to make them reveal their presence nor encountered any dangers. Lindbulm was popular with Alexandrians of late, and Regent Cid's few enemies back home were merely rival engineers with a curiously high amount of Republican thought.

Cid and Hilda had left after spending a few days in Alexandria, but as always they'd allowed Eiko to stay behind for a couple of days more, allowing their adopted daugher to spend time with her friends. This meant mainly Vivi due to how busy Garnet and Zidane were.

"So who was it sent me that hat for my birthday?" Eiko asked as they wandered.

Vivi pondered this for a moment before responding.

"I think it was Mikoto." .  

"Oh, right. Just in case it was from Garnet and she expected me to wear it..."  

"Is something wrong with it?"

"No, it's a nice hat, but I don't really like hats much..." Eiko said.

She preferred hair ribbons, for hats always caught on her Summoner's Horn.

"What other presents did you get?" Vivi asked.

"Well, that tiara I had earlier. And a bunch of dresses. Nothing special, just ones to wear normally, but my favourite present is my watch. Father got it."

"Is it a nice watch?"

"Yeah. I'll show you it later..."  Eiko said.

***

They'd went back to the castle, to Eiko's room. She rummaged around in her luggage, looking for her watch. Of course, "rummaging" consisted of throwing the contents of a case all over the room.

"Um, if it's your favourite, how come you weren't carrying it?" Vivi wondered.

"Didn't want to lose it. Besides, I didn't get to unpack my own stuff and they never opened these while Mother and Father were here because they bring half the castle with them." She said, absent-mindedly throwing a petticoat over her shoulder.

"Uh, so I see. Don't these usually go in a drawer or something?" Vivi enquired from below a dress that had landed on him. Eiko ignored him.

After a few minutes, Eiko triumphantly held up a golden fob watch.

"Here it is! Huh? Vivi? Where are you?" Eiko pondered.

A pile of clothing shifted.

"Help..."

Eiko frowned as Vivi managed to pull himself out

"You know, you aren't meant to wear these on your head. I'd stick with your hat if I were you. Or if you really want to wear them there take the hat off first..."

Eiko pulled the rest of the pile off Vivi.

"Now, look at my watch..." Eiko said, dangling it.

The boy suddenly tensed.

"Wait a minute, I remember this! You're planning something."

Eiko looked hurt.

"I'm just showing you my watch."

Vivi looked at her for a moment, seeing that maybe she wasn't lying. Her eyes seemed watery.... Was she going to cry? Maybe she didn't have anything planned...

If there was a medal awarded for naivety,  Vivi would have a dozen of them.

"Sorry. Made a mistake." he mumbled. Eiko perked up.

"Great! now, look at it. Nice, isn't it?"

Vivi first agreed, then a few minutes later would have realised he had been right to be paranoid had he not fallen for the trap virtually right away. She didn't even need to prompt him to track the waving watch, instead his glowing eyes followed it perfectly. She hadn't expected him to go under so quickly. Then again, she was unaware that during her hypnosis attempts she started subconciously casting a form of the Confuse spell on the target, which combined with the less magical hypnosis sped her up and deepened the trances.

She then looked at the contents of the case she had scattered all over the room. That could take a while to clear up and put away unless someone else did it...

***

A little while later, it was clear, and Eiko had stopped giggling.

"Okay, Vivi, now take my dress off and get into your own clothes. Oh, and put that one away too." Eiko instructed

She'd hypnotised him, tricked him into dressing up in her frilliest pinkest dress (Behind a screen of course. She'd had it drilled into her how wrong such things as watching others undress were), and had him clear up while she tried to stop laughing. He looked ridiculous!

Of course, that was half because to start with, she'd had him keep his hat on and hide his face behind shadows but she'd been curious and decided to have him take them both off as well later on. He looked a lot more like a girl than she'd expected once he did that, even if his hair was quite short, but he still looked kind of like a boy too. A boy she'd tricked into wearing a dress because she'd let her short attention span take her plan a little off course for a little while, but a boy nonetheless, and a boy who was now done with his job.

"Sure." Vivi said in a monotone before walking behind the screen to carry out his orders.

While he did that, Eiko got back on track with her plot. She could hardly contain her excitement, but she had to test out her plan somewhere she wouldn't get into big trouble...

***

Of all the things she'd thought being monarch would be like when she had been younger, she'd never predicted it would involve so much pen-pushing.

Garnet sighed, loathing the pile of letters and papers in front of her. She liked to see Cid, Hilda and Eiko, but their visit had been just a distraction from all this. Wven with all her advisers, her helpers, and Zidane, she still had far more work to do as Queen than she'd have liked. Even after three years, rebuilding the country wasn't done. She also had to deal with the controversy of her willingness to assist other countries rebuild, especially in light of the fact it had been her mother's actions that devastated every other nation.  More than a few in those nations had taken much convincing to allow Alexandria to help atone for the errors of the last Queen.

'When was the last time I could really relax?' she asked herself.

She knew she couldn't easily answer. Even her birthday had become just another way of putting off the pile, which only grew larger the longer she was absent. So many letters needing signed, so many orders needing issued... and somehow only she could do it.

Not even her engagement to Zidane had been a relief, truly. They loved each other, yes, but both of them had unspoken understanding the country had to come first, and even when the two had proposed a simple ceremony to save time and money that would be better spent rebuilding, that had caused uproar with the nobility, who demanded that their monarch marry with a full royal wedding, if at all, for this was the same nobility that questioned Zidane's right to even become her husband in the first place.

Many of them  were also upset at the loophole Cid had helped arrange for her, a knighthood given to Zidane and therefore enough to make him count as a noble of Lindblum. Most of those upset and dismissive of Zidane were simply angry that the Queen had not chosen one of their own sons as a husband rather than someone she was actually in love with.  The one time they had tried to even spend a night together,  somehow the nobles had found out and another scandal had erupted. When she had tried at Zidane's request to allow him to help her with her duties, the nobles had again reacted with fury.

It seemed no matter what she did to balance her own happiness with her responsibility to her people, the nobles found fault with it. But even though marrying him would let him help her without protest, she knew she couldn't live with the guilt of spending so much Gil on a marriage with so much pomp and ceremony as the Nobles demanded, not when her people were still struggling to rebuild. She wanted her marriage to Zidane to be a happy occasion, not haunted by fear it was a waste of time and money.

And so, they'd held off marriage for now, waiting for the day the rebuilding was done.

The irony was not lost on her. She was The Queen, supposed to be the ruler of the nation and one of the most powerful people in the world. She would give anything for nothing more than a few weeks rest away from the stress and effort of the constant need for her oversight. But she had nothing to give. She even felt guilt at thinking like this, knowing she was lucky to have a loving fiancé, supportive friends, and loyal subordinates. But every time she thought of how hard they worked, she compared her own work to theirs.

She signed notes and made decisions. Those people worked hard, without complaint, and here she was, stressed over having to be in charge of what they did? This was how her train of thought only led to more stress for herself as she tried to dismiss her worries by thinking others had it worse, telling herself her efforts were almost nothing compared to their toiling.

She glanced at the clock. Her bedroom had become more of an office than a place of rest, her desk covered in neat piles of papers and letters that never shrank, any reduction replaced the next morning. She'd go through just under forty reports and requests on a good day, and knew that to make up for the days of work lost during the visit by the Lindblum royals, she'd need to work long after midnight for some time.

She couldn't have refused the visit, even though Cid and Hilda would understand. It was annual. It was protocol. To even ask Cid and Hilda to not come would cause nobles with contracts in Lindblum to fear that it would be seen as a snub, or a reduction in ties between the two nations.

The Queen sighed, seeing that it wasn't even nine at night yet and her pile seemed no smaller. She decided she'd work on some more, then she'd take a rest. She'd go to her usual place, get some air maybe. Try and relax a little if she could.

But even her usual place wasn't very relaxing any more. She found herself always remembering what she had to go back to, and relaxing became difficult.

***

She and Vivi had found Steiner quite easily, as he was in the Armoury inspecting the weapons and equipment at this time of night. In a second after they found him, Steiner was a frog. The angry transformed knight was easy to catch, and Vivi held him as she hypnotised him into thinking he was a normal frog.

"When I snap my fingers again to break the trance, you'll forget being a frog entirely, and forget having been turned into it. You will obey my instructions, answer all my questions, and agree with my suggestions after the trance ends... Oh, and you'll like my dress." Eiko ordered, after the Steiner-frog became blank-eyed in his trance.

She ordered Vivi to let Steiner go, and then allowed Steiner to act like the frog he thought he was

They amused themselves as he hopped around oblivious, which was even better when Vivi made him human again. Eventually, she snapped her fingers. Steiner apparently only noticed her for the first time, Eiko's hypnotic commands working perfectly.

"Ah, Princess Eiko. What a fine dress." He complimented, as hypnotically ordered.

"Thanks, Steiner. Say, when I'm walking around, Vivi is kind of like my bodyguard, right?" She asked

The knight nodded.

"You could say that, yes."

"Well, he should have something to show it then. Like a helmet." Eiko said, trying out how well the hypnosis had took.

"Indeed... Perhaps he could borrow a spare of mine for now?" Steiner offered, picking up a helmet that was a lot better kept than the one he had been wearing. This one gleamed and had a perfect white feather.

"Thanks! Oh, do you know anywhere I could find Garnet alone?"

"Her Majesty often heads up to the roof of the castle at nights to look at the stars." Came the reply.

"Thanks Steiner. Oh, forget I asked about Garnet." She said.

He did. As far as he was concerned, Eiko had merely came to borrow a helmet for Vivi. A harmless bit of playing. Besides, that helmet was too small. Maybe it would fit Master Vivi better...

***

She'd went on through the pile until she could tolerate no more for now. She was making her way to the roof. From here, atop the castle, she could look out on the country. The city below, the distant green fields. At night, the starlight and moon fought with the lamps and lanterns of the city across the moat, but held the darkness over the fields fully in their grip.

In the past, people had thought the stars above were the spirits of the dead watching the world. Each light was a departed loved one. Now, the world knew they were distant bodies like the sun, merely burning balls of gas and not glimmering souls.

Though she knew the lights below in the city were just small flames to light the way, much as the stars above were just flames themselves, she felt at times it was more apt to think classically. If each light above was a soul of the departed, then each light below was the light of the living. She'd first made the analogy when she had returned to the city, and came here to collect her thoughts. She had recalled the story of the stars, and noticed each night after her return, that more and more lights had begun appearing in the city below.

It had given her hope then, to think each light below was a life back on track. But now she knew each light was a life that she was struggling to serve. She worried about her decisions, for even the smallest error could have consequences. Sometimes she wondered if perhaps a more competent ruler could have been finished already, if they would have found easier ways to deal with all that had happened.

She knew she was a strong woman especially compared to herself three years ago. The world and her had changed so much since she had turned sixteen, and she had to admit she felt pride with what she had accomplished so far. However, as she thought of the struggles yet to come, and knowing she was left alone here without prying eyes, she felt herself letting go.

She didn't weep as such, but still felt her eyes growing damp with growing tears. She fought to maintain her composure but at the same time, thought she could really use something to let it all out. In the end it just resulted in quiet stifled sobs as she tried to avoid breaking down in tears completely.

"I could really use a break..." Garnet sighed between sniffles, leaning on the railings as she regained control slightly, but still streaming tears.

***

"There she is!" Eiko whispered. Vivi nodded beside her.

The two had waited in the shadows of the roof, waiting to hear a sound. Eiko wasn't sure if Garnet had just arrived, but she had her plan. She'd obtained a spare key to the door here, and had learned that Garnet generally had left this door unlocked so as to not bother with her own key.

"Okay, Vivi, count to twenty then do it. I'm going to go lock the door so no one interrupts."

"Sure." Vivi complied as she slid out towards the door.

Keeping an eye on Garnet and her mental countdown, she stealthily moved to the door, and locked it carefully, unheard. She had her eyes on Garnet the whole time as she reached nineteen... then twenty. Vivi cast the spell. Garnet barely had time to realise it before she was turned into stone, but had enough time to jump in surprise.

This meant she fell over with an alarming crunch. Eiko almost screamed, but instead let out a brief yelp before preservation instincts silenced her, realising a scream would alert people, locked door or not. It then occurred to her, that a scream and a locked door would be even worse.

"Oh no! that wasn't meant to happen!" She cried out more quietly, frantically running over to Garnet.

Vivi followed, slowly. Garnet was still trying to guess what had happened when Eiko's frightened face appeared in front of her and looked her over.

'Wrong kind of break!' Garnet thought, not aware that Eiko's cause for concern was a handful of cracked shards of stone lying below her fallen petrified form.

"Oh good, we didn't break her, just her clothes cracked up a little..." Eiko said, looking relieved.

Then she saw that Garnet's petrified form seemed to be crying. In fact it was just the tears from earlier, not dried up and not affected by the spell in a rare side effect of petrification, but Eiko didn't quite realise this.

"S-s-she's crying! What did we do?!"

'You turned me to stone, of course! And salt water sometimes doesn't petrify even if it's in the area of a spells effect. ' Garnet explained, knowing the reasons for her unpetrified salty tears, but of course Eiko had no idea of this.

"I just wanted to petrify her to hypnotise her into letting me be Queen for a little while but how do we explain this?!" Eiko panicked.

'...You wanted what?' Garnet thought, more confused than angry.

"Um... What do we do?" Eiko panicked.

Vivi was no use, simply shrugging and adjusting the oversized helmet. Steiner's guess had been off.

'All up to you.' Garnet thought, unheard.

"I know! I'll hypnotise her anyway and and uh, calm her down!"  Eiko beamed

Eiko began waving the watch back and forth, telling Garnet to calm down. This was, however, pointless.

'how am I supposed to follow it? my eyes can't move.' Garnet sighed mentally.

If it wasn't for how absurd this was, and if she wasn't a statue, she'd be laughing at this. She knew that was the wrong response to this kind of thing but she was amused, not annoyed. Besides, Eiko's whole plan had been to hypnotise a statue in the first place and as Garnet knew, that wouldn't have worked in the first place.

however, the unpetrified tears dried up without Eiko's help. Still in a panic, she thought their evaporation was a sign of a calmed Garnet.

"Okay, Garnet. I'm doing this for a little while. When I turn you back, you won't be mad. You went on a break away by yourself to relax and left me in charge because I'm a princess. When I snap my fingers you'll dream you're on your break and when I turn you back and snap them again you'll be back. " Eiko said.

'you haven't solved the broken clothes issue. Wait, what cracked anyway?'

"Vivi, wait here and watch her. I have a couple of things to do." Eiko said, panic fading and confidence returning.

Vivi nodded and walked into Garnet's vision. He looked kind of dazed and she wondered why.

'Oh, I get it. she hypnotised you to help...' Garnet realised.

Garnet would have sighed. Eiko no doubt was covering it all up, but the more she thought about it... maybe this was better than nothing. She was turned to stone, and statues didn't have to read reports, sign documents, or meet with nobles who had no respect for her. Maybe this could turn out to be a blessing in disguise...