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The comforting words from her Auntie over being a healer helped Garnet feel a little better. It was true that she spent most of her time on her journey surrounded by warriors. The only other mages had been children, and there had definitely been a sense that at times she felt a little embarrassed by her talents. She was as strong as the six year old girl when it came to physical combat. As capable of battling as the nine year old boy. She was, although still young, an adult, but could never keep up or compete with the likes of Zidane, Freya, Steiner, or even Quina. But it was true that none of them could heal like she did.
"Indeed, Auntie," she smiled gently. "Plus, I can also summon a thunder god. Even swashbucklers think twice before that," she added, her tone teasing. It was rare that Garnet made light of her summoning abilities. Too many painful memories, and too much of knowing her powers had been used to inflict pain by those in positions of power. Kuja. Her Mom. Alexandria still wore the battle scars from Bahamut's attack. Lindblum was still damaged by Atmos. And Cleyra? Well, Cleyra was gone forever. She felt a little guilty as soon as she said it, because it wasn't a matter to joke about. But still, it WAS part of her. She might not have been physically the strongest, and she would always be coddled royalty, learning about the world with wide eyes, but she was capable in her own way. And it was a way many people could not match.

Hilda seemed to assume that Garnet wasn't interesting in learning about how to make potions, which perhaps had been true in the immediate sense. It seemed like a broad topic, and something she knew nothing about, and when she pictured her mixing various liquids in glass beakers the image of something immediately exploding in her face sprang to mind. But she also didn't particularly like being told that she couldn't do something. It wasn't uncommon for somebody to dismiss something as something she shouldn't do because she was a Queen. (Usually while Steiner jumped up and down protesting). So Hilda assuming she didn't want to learn just made Garnet want to protest.
"I never said that I did not want to learn!" she protested, putting her hands on her hips. "Learning new skills is important, and what magical potions can and cannot do is something every Queen should know." She insisted. "Also, you never know when the fate of the world may require you to transform somebody from a Oglop back into a person," she teased her Auntie lightly. She knew Hilda would know exactly what she was referring to.

Hilda began to list the ingredients they needed, and Garnet, having just insisted that she was going to learn and that she totally could and it was worthwhile, did her best to not look too intimidated by the list of ingredients. She wondered if she should write them down.
"Well, I am sure that we can find those," Garnet smiled confidently, walking forward beside her Auntie again. "Uh, I... do not suppose you have them written down?" she asked hopefully, already worried that she'd forget them.

Garnet couldn't resist a tiny giggle when Hilda said 'alrighty'. Garnet wondered if she had sounded that strange when she had first tried. Of course, Hilda followed it up with a follow-up question, and Garnet paused to consider. Okay, so maybe she wasn't an EXPERT on common speak, but how hard could it be? She travelled with enough people to pick up something. How would Zidane introduce himself? He'd probably tap his chest proudly, but she ignored that bit.
"Oh, uh, well, you'd just say something like, um... 'hello, I'm Dagger!'," she smiled, not quite sounding so confident now she wasn't directly repeating what she'd been told, but it sounded about right. Wow, it had really been a while since she had thought about this. Maybe she had settled too comfortably back into the role of queen...

@ladyhilda

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Garnet had to repress a small giggle when Hilda asked if she had 'fisticuffed swashbucklers'. Not because of her use of language; despite Garnet's claims, she had no idea if that was the correct term or not, but more because of the horror on her Auntie's face. Her Auntie was fully aware that Garnet had travelled the world with adventurers, and even journeyed to other realms and the centre of creation to fight a maniacal madman, but still seemed to want to cling to the belief that she had never actually been in a fight before. It was actually rather sweetly naïve. Garnet wondered if this was how other people felt when they spoke to her...

She smiled and looked over at her Auntie.
"Well, the majority of the, uh, swashbuckling was left to the others. I was mainly healed the others, and summoned, of course. Not to mention, when Steiner was in the party, it was nearly impossible for me to actually attack anything without him literally holding me back, shrieking 'princess!!!'," she did her little impression of him, which she knew Hilda would find instantly familiar. "But, well, I have had to hit plenty of monsters with my staff. Rackets made it a little easier. I could attack while staying back, and they were more effective too, because they relied on my magical abilities," she smiled. She wondered what Hilda would be like in a fight. Would she use a weapon, or rely entirely upon her magic? Having a weapon certainly helped when a monster attacked you, after all. It allowed you to at least deflect some of the damage.

The conversation turned a little more serious, however, when Hilda asked about Garnet's summoning abilities. She paused for a moment, hesitating as she thought about it.
"I... don't know. It's strange. It was always a part of me. Like you said, a natural part. I could feel them within me. But... I was scared of them. They felt so powerful, and I didn't understand them. We talked about them, of course. My mother, my father and I, but, I never really fully understood what they were. I was quite happy to pretend that part of me never existed, to hide it away deep down and never use it. I was far too afraid to ever summon anything," she admitted. And then she sighed. "And then they were stolen from me. And my every fear came true. I saw what the power inside me was capable of doing. When I saw... Atmos tearing into Lindblum, it felt like... it felt like I was doing it. It was my power. It had been my responsibility. And I had let it be stolen. I kept telling myself it wasn't that. I wasn't evil because I owned this power. It was being used for evil purposes, but it wasn't evil. But.... I'm not sure I ever truly believed it," she sighed.

"Ramuh helped. He guided me through my first summonings, and was gentle and kind, and I saw that eidolons could be used for good. But still, their power is not to be taken lightly. Much like ourselves, eidolons have their personalities. They will obey you, but they have darker impulses. Bahamut is... destructive. He was a necessary power when commanding him helped us stop Kuja, but I am now glad to be free of his presence," Garnet explained. "They are not like casting spells. You are summoning a living being that obeys your commands, but has its own personality and desires. And most of them wish to destroy and cause harm. There is a reason so many Eidolons are destructive," Garnet finished.

"The strain is.... emotional," she went back to answer her Auntie's question. "The creatures that you summon... you... I feel responsible for them. I don't mean that you feel their emotions, just that... when they kill, you feel as though you have killed. The blood they shed is on your hands," she explained. "But... Eiko is far stronger than I. She is a warrior in spirit. And she knows far more about the Eidolons than I do. Have faith in her. She is... far better equipped to handle them than I am," Garnet went on.

Luckily, such a heavy subject didn't quite remain, although Garnet felt a little guilty about her jokes regarding Uncle Cid. She smiled slightly when Hilda said that they were lucky she could turn him back.
"We were lucky that you chose to do so. We still all owe you a great debt," she replied. Without the Hilda Garde III who knew how far they would have come? They may have never stopped Kuja. And Cid, restored, had saved them at the Battle of the Iifa Tree. She had never forgotten either.

"Well, perhaps I shall have to write it down for both of us then," Garnet smiled, her mood lightening. "I... sometimes regret not writing more on my last adventure. There are so many memories, and so much that I learned... and... sometimes I think I would like to reflect upon it."

"Oh, common speak is often plain and direct. And then, rather surprisingly, often anything but. There are so many colourful idioms and metaphors that I spent much of my time learning from... what did I term them? 'Context clues'. Otherwise, an awful lot of the time, you have no idea what anybody is saying!"

She actually laughed slightly when Hilda asked if she needed a pseudonym as well, and smiled.
"I do not think that I need one here either. It is just... When travelling, 'Dagger' became as much a part of me as 'Garnet'. She was my identity as an adventurer. I... sometimes feel that it is easier to be... who I need to be here, by being Dagger, and not Garnet. I... know that it is silly. But, I am a Queen. I am allowed my follies," she teased lightly, knowing that Hilda couldn't argue with her rank. "Of course, if you do wish for one, perhaps I could help you find one?" she smiled.

They stopped outside of a herb shop, and Hilda seemed to believe it was a good place to look.
"It seems appropriate. I shall follow your lead," Garnet nodded eagerly.

@ladyhilda

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"He is so much more than that," Garnet replied when Hilda moved to Steiner's defence. "He is my oldest and truest friend, who has stuck by me throughout all of my follies and mistakes, and put his trust in me when I needed him the most. I will never forget what he has done for me. He is so much more to me than a knight and a soldier," she smiled gently. "But, if one cannot make jokes about one's friends, who can one joke about?" she pointed out teasingly. Something else she had learned even before her travels. How teasing and jokes could be affection. It was perhaps a side of her Uncle Cid and Auntie Hilda had never truly seen much, as she was younger when they knew her well, but still a side of her she knew existed. She laughed gently when Hilda suggested she get a tutor to learn to fight. "Oh, Auntie, I think if it was a skill I was at all good at, I would have picked it up while travelling the world. Besides, there are so many more important things for me to focus upon. I would like Alexandria to become a place where we never have to fight again. That's my dream," she admitted.

Hilda was, of course, learned on the existence of Eidolons. She guessed she had learned most of this from Eiko, who herself had learned from the Eidolon Wall. But Garnet believed that they were so much more than that. No, she knew that they were so much more than that.

"We... I-I mean, the summoners, thought that they were more than that," Garnet admitted. "From the translations of the Eidolon Wall, even they didn't fully understand the Eidolons. They would change form to match different cultures, they seemed to have their own personalities... Some believed that the Eidolons took the forms of creatures that existed in legend, rather than being legendary creatures themselves. We.... just do not know. Even the summoners understood very little about them. But I know that they think and that they can feel. Ramuh can help guide me, he is talkative and kind. Some of the others, less so," she explained. "I can control them, and command them, but I still feel their feelings. Bahamut in particular is... difficult," she admitted. "You are right, of course. We have much to learn about them still, and I should work with Eiko. We are the last living summoners, and we must do our best to understand them. Perhaps we can change the more aggressive ones from their ways. It's just... difficult. After what I've seen them do."

"I will do my best to help Eiko once I return to Gaia. It would be good to see her again, and we can work together to understand Eidolons. Perhaps it is time peaceful study of them began again. Much like the summoners did," Garnet suggested. "Besides, when we have children, there's a possibility they will inherit our powers, and we will want them to be guided," she added. Truthfully, kids wasn't something she had thought about much of discussed, but she WAS a Queen. It was expected of her. And when children came, she would want them to understand both their genome and summoner lineage.

Garnet felt a pang of regret at her natural assumption Zidane would be the father. If she ever found him again...

"Well, you would need a different name from myself anyway," Garnet smiled as she tried to think of an appropriate alias for Hilda. "Hm. I chose dagger from Zidane's weapon, but naming yourself after Cid's weapon would be strange. I do not think that 'Airship' would be an appropriate name," Garnet admitted thoughtfully. "You should name yourself after an item you are fond of. Perhaps... Parasol? Fan? Potion? You said you were fond of them, so perhaps Sobriquet?" she suggested, each suggestion not sounding quite right to her. "I think it is important that it is a name that you choose for yourself," she added, hoping to escape the pressure of naming Hilda.

"It is hard to know. Any amount would be better than what we have. The usual antidotes and eye drops are useful. Of course, a full remedy is far more useful but far harder to acquire," Garnet explained. She looked curiously at Hilda. "How did you know what to pick, when it was not correct labelled?" All the herbs looked the same to Garnet...



@ladyhilda

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Garnet felt uneasy as Hilda lamented on the loss of the summoners. If only because she lamented the loss of their stories and understanding of the Eidolons. Garnet knew that was a heavy loss, but she felt like she had lost so much more. She had lost people/ She had lost her family. Her true family, who had risked everything to save her. Garnet knew that if she still had them, she would have been an entirely different person. Not even Garnet, but Sarah, the summoner girl from a village far away. But it was still hard not to feel a sense of true loss.
"They are not all lost," Garnet affirmed with a small nod. "As long as Eiko and myself survive, the summoner race shall live on. We may not know all of their secrets, but Eiko was still raised by them, and grew up there, and I have more memories now than I did. We can rediscover what they knew. I... feel their loss all the time, but I will not allow them to be lost completely. Not as long as there are some of us who remain." Garnet knew that Hilda would understand, and that she hadn't meant it in that sense, but Garnet also felt the need to state her intention to preserve her race. She wouldn't let Garland, or Kuja or any of the others win. Her people had survived in her and in Eiko, and she had to make that count for something.

"I do not know. The Eidolons... I spent my entire childhood living in fear of that power that lurked inside of me. And even now, I can feel it. The feelings of power and hate some of the Eidolons have. And yet... Perhaps they do change. There is no question that under my control, they are less destructive. Bahamut nearly destroyed Alexandria from one summoning, Atmos consumed an entire district of Lindblum, Odin blew up Cleyra, under the control of greedier, more dangerous people than myself, but in my hands... They... are powerful, yes, but considerably less so. So perhaps... Perhaps my personality does have some input on their actions. Perhaps, over time, they shall change..." Her thoughts returned to Bahamut, and the hatred she felt emanate from him. "...Although there are some I shall never call... friend."

She smiled when Hilda was relieved that Eiko would have help. Garnet was still slightly sheepish about that. More because Eiko seemed to know far more than she did about the summons, and also because even if she didn't, Garnet couldn't imagine Eiko taking instruction from anyone.
"I think it shall be Eiko teaching me," she laughed slightly. "But we shall work together. Eiko is my family too, and we are bonded with each other as well. We summoned Alexander together, our two minds and souls joining to bring him forth. I... think we shall be connected for ever more." It was true, but also perhaps a quick deflection from discussing children. After all, there was only one person Garnet wanted to father her children, and talking about him and her future felt inappropriate. Somehow, as if it was a thought she should keep private.

"It does not have to be something you carry. Merely, something that inspires you. After all, I do not carry daggers," she pointed out, wondering if her advice might help. Hilda didn't seem taken by any of the names Garnet had suggested, but perhaps she would think of one by the time they met next. Still, it was difficult. In retrospect, she probably could have picked a better name than 'Dagger', but it was her's now, and she couldn't think about giving it up.

"Five would help the Church greatly," Garnet nodded happily, glad that she had secured such resources. But then her puzzlement turned back to the herbs. "Thank you. It is just... there are so many, I do not even know what I am looking for..." Garnet admitted. Herbology was not her strong suite, and she had no idea what the herbs she had to find would even resemble in among all the others. In her time as an adventurer, Garnet had learned many strengths she never knew she had, but a skill for ingredients or cooking had never been one of them, and she was fairly certain that would extend to potion making...


@ladyhilda