PUGGY!! is surprised that the castle is bigger than Alexandria Castle. I guess he missed the earlier conversation because of his moping. “Yeah. They don’t call it Lindblum Grand Castle for nothing,” Zidane explains the obvious. There’s some more crap about how big the castle is (okay, we get it), and then Zidane asks Garnoa if she’s been to Lindblum before. “Yes, I came here a few times when I was little…I haven’t been here since my father passed away.” So she actually has been out of the castle before. A group of guards approaches them. Garnoa introduces herself as the Princess of Alexandria, and requests a meeting with Regent Cid. I was beginning to wonder where the heck our Cid was. The Elite Guard doesn’t believe that a princess would be traveling in a shitty airship. “And look at the company you’re keeping,” he sneers. What a jackass. I mean, not that Zidane or Adelbert are big prizes or anything, but there’s some stuff you just shouldn’t say out loud. Adelbert is pissed. “How dare you accuse the princess of lying!? The princess was forced to come here under extreme circumstances!” The Elite Guard asks for proof of identity. Garnoa shows him her pendant. EG seems to recognize it, but he tells one of the Peon Guards to get Minister Artania, whoever the heck that is. Zidane and Adelbert get into an insult match with each other, which I’m sure does wonders for EG’s opinion of them.

Minister Artania shows up. EG fills him in on what’s going on, including the fact that Garnoa has a pendant that looks like the Falcon Claw, whatever the heck that is. “Uncle Artania!” Garnoa says, running over. Artania is happy to see her. I guess they know each other. Artania tells her that Cid is waiting, and leads the party inside the castle. Well, inside the smaller portion of the Grand Castle that serves the purpose that a regular castle would in places where the whole city isn’t inside the castle.

The inside of the castle part of the castle is all regal-looking with red carpets, a fountain, paintings, and the whole nine yards. The game designers put a huge amount of effort into the NPC dialogue — the two guards both say, “Welcome to Lindblum!” It’s like playing a SNES Final Fantasy game. And that’s good because ONLY SNES FINAL FANTASY GAMES WERE GOOD BUT NOT AS GOOD AS THE ORIGINAL FINAL FANTASY WHICH WAS THE FIRST ONE I EVER PLAYED AND MY FAVORITE AND FF8 SUCKS!!!!!!!11111

Anyway, Zidane and the others follow Artania onto a round elevator platform thingy. Well, we don’t actually see the others because the game designers were too lazy to program anyone but Zidane. Oh wait, there’s the Blackout of Animation We Don’t Feel Like Programming and suddenly everyone is there. Artania plays the role of Exposition Guy here by explaining that the castle has three levels. There’s stuff about Mist at the Lower Level, the air cab to town at the Mid Level, and the royal stuff at the Upper Level, where access is restricted. Zidane asks Garnoa about Regent Cid, because even though Zidane lived in Lindblum, he never met the guy. “Regent Cid is very wise. He always thinks ahead. He may seem a bit odd at times, but he is very dependable. He and my father were best friends…” Oh, I see how it is now.

In the throne room, Minister Artania announces to an empty throne that Princess Garnoa is there to see him. It appears that Regent Cid is invisible. Garnoa and Adelbert enter, and Garnoa looks around in confusion. Adelbert asks her if something is wrong. Well, duh. She tells him to look at the throne. He does. Suddenly, an oglop with a huge mustache jumps onto the throne and says, “Greetings!” That has to be the weirdest sentence I’ve ever written. Adelbert screams, “OGLOP!!!” like a little girl and punches the oglop as it jumps toward them. It flies backwards, hitting the back of the throne. A bunch of things happen all at once. Minister Artania refers to the oglop as “Sire”, PUGGY!! and Zidane enter and comment on the huge oglop, and Adelbert gets pissed. Long story short — the oglop is Cid (like you didn’t figure that out already), and the official story is that Cid was attacked in his sleep six months ago. His wife, Hilda, was kidnapped, and Cid was turned into an oglop. “Whoever pulled this off had to be highly skilled, like me,” Zidane says modestly. “Hmph! I’ll bet it was you!” Adelbert says. Cid replies, “That’s not possible.” He says he knows who Zidane is. The plot thickens, except not.

Garnoa tries to bring up the subject of why she came all the way to Lindblum, but Cid tells her it can wait until the next day — Garnoa and the others should rest. Garnoa says, “Listen, you little buckfutter, I traveled through Evil Forest, the Ice Cavern, was abducted by a big plant, was almost abducted three more times by huge winged versions of PUGGY!!, almost got myself killed on a God damn airship, and you tell me I have to wait till tomorrow to talk to you? KISS MY ASS!!!” Actually, she says, “Thank you.” Minister Artania leads them to the royal dining hall or whatever to eat lunch.

Please give some of that to Adelbert. PLEASE.

Cut to Zidane walking through a city. Wha? “I can’t stand the food at the castle. It’s way too high-class for my tastes,” he says to himself. Yeah, good food sucks. He walks into a nearby tavern. “Yo, Pops. I’ll have the stupid special,” he says kindly. Pops, who is actually a man with the majestic name of “Bobo”, knows Zidane. He tells Zidane to sit down and his soup will be right out. But before Zidane can comply, a young serving wench tells him to move out of her way. She’s wearing a strapless thingamajig and I guess she’s supposed to be hot. Zidane thinks so, anyway, as he clumsily tries to ask her out. “How about you and me go for a cruise on an airship.” She seems like she might actually be receptive, but a nearby rat-woman dressed as a red mage says, “Hey, monkey-tail, you’re disturbing the other customers.” “What the–you’ve got a tail, too, rat-face!” Zidane snots. They look like they’re about to fight, and Bobo tells them to take it outside. Just then, Rat Woman says, “Long time, Zidane.” It appears they know each other as well, and they have some cutesy banter back and forth as Zidane pretends he doesn’t remember her name. Or maybe he really doesn’t. Either way, I don’t care. The important thing is that her name is Freya. The other important thing is that she’s (eventually) a playable character. Unless I just got to name an NPC — that would be a first.

It’s been three years since they last saw each other, which would make Zidane about 13 years old at the time. I wonder if Freya is an interspecies pedophile. Zidane asks Freya, “Hey, did you ever find out anything about your boyfriend?” She didn’t. He asks her why she’s in Lindblum. “The Festival of the Hunt. What else? It’s a good opportunity to test my skills,” she replies. We also find out that she’s from Burmecia, but doesn’t want to return. Trust me, this stuff seems like random inane blabber, but it’s all important later. Suddenly, the screen goes black and the goodnight music plays. Oh. Okay, I guess Zidane went to sleep.

Back at the castle, Cid leads Garnoa back to the throne room. He asks about her mother. Garnoa says, “Since Father died, Mother has been acting very strangely…” Imagine that — acting oddly when your spouse dies. Cid says something to the same effect. “We haven’t spoken much lately,” Garnoa continues. “Also, a suspicious man has been prowling around the castle.” Oh. That one’s new. “I don’t know what’s going on anymore…I fear that she might be planning something terrible.” Now where would she get that idea? Garnoa says that no one will listen to her concerns. Cid is happy she came to him for help, and Garnoa thinks that Cid is the only…um…”person” her mother will listen to. “When I heard that Lindblum’s theater ship was coming to Alexandria, I decided to sneak on board and come here no matter what. I just never expected the crew to kidnap me…” she says. Now it’s time for a huge plot revelation. “It was me…” Cid tells her. “I was the one who ordered Tantalus to kidnap you.” That still doesn’t explain the whole “famous thieves AND famous actors” thing, but whatever.

It turns out that Cid promised Garnoa’s father that he would protect her. “We’ve known about the disturbances in Alexandria for some time,” he tells her. “But had we acted directly, it would’ve started a war. So, I asked Baku for help. He and I go way back.” I see. “The play was the perfect cover to enter Alexandria and get you out. No one would suspect Lindblum was behind it.” Especially since the theater ship was known to be from Lindblum. You’d have to be a rocket science to make that connection.

Garnoa tells him about the Big PUGGY!!s in Dali. “I don’t know how they’re related to PUGGY!!, but if Mother is planning to use them for war…” Garnoa says. Cid reassures her that that won’t happen. “Even if she were to command an army of [Big PUGGY!!s], she won’t make a move as long as we have our airship fleet.” That just smacks of famous last words, doesn’t it? Garnoa apologizes as if she did something wrong. Cid turns all sappy for a moment. “I’m helping you because I am your Uncle Cid, not because I am the regent of Lindblum. Also, the script says I have to.” Garnoa thanks him. Again.

The scene changes to something that looks like a wooden dock with some mechanical controls. Cid and Garnoa are there. That was fast. Cid says, “The heart and soul of Lindblum: our airship dock. This is Dock No. 1, where we conduct our research.” Garnoa wonders where all the airships are. Cid explains that six months ago, there was a new model of airship in the docks, one that didn’t need Mist to fly. Hmm…could this be related to the attack on Cid six months ago? Yes, it could, only the story of the attack was all a big fat lie. As it turns out, Cid couldn’t keep his pants zipped, and when Hilda found out that he had been sharing his favors, she used her magic to transform him into an oglop. You’d think that if your wife knew magic, you’d be a little bit more careful. Then, Hilda took the ship, called the “Hilda Garde”, and flew away. I can’t say she was out of line there. Garnoa doesn’t seem too thrilled to be learning about her uncle’s……..sexual proclivities.

Cid says that he’s been trying to create Hilda Garde 2, but his mind won’t function correctly as an oglop. Um, he seems to be talking and thinking just fine. Cid will still help Garnoa, though; as soon as South Gate is fixed, they’ll go to Alexandria together. Then Cid randomly mentions Baku’s band of thieves as a way to segue into what’s going on with Zidane.

He’s just waking up in the inn. PUGGY!! shows up to bid him good morning. I wonder where PUGGY!! has been all this time or how he found Zidane, but I never find out. They talk some more about how big the city is (PUGGY!! is still surprised at the size), and then PUGGY!! asks Zidane if the members of Tantalus still live in the city. “Yeah. Our hideout is in the Theater District,” Zidane says, informing us where to go next. He invites PUGGY!! to go along, but PUGGY!! declines. “Ohhh…okay…Go find yourself a cute girl, alright?” Zidane wanks, as if PUGGY!!’s going to go scoping for whores.

There’s another ATE, but I’m not going to recap it because it’s another tutorial. Afterward, Zidane checks in with the Strategically Placed Moogle in the next room. I wonder why the game designers didn’t just put it in Zidane’s room to save me some time and effort, but then realize that they might have wanted to prevent any wrong assumptions about a moogle spending the night with Zidane. The SPM has a letter for Zidane from Ruby. She’s opening a theater in an alley in Alexandria with a bartender “friend”. That’s so interesting it makes me want to save my game and end the recap. I do.