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year 5, quarter 3
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You've got a lot of brass, or mayhap you're just lacking in brains!
The Warrior smiled.
For some reason, surrounded by nothing, drunk, and probably dreaming, Faris felt his cheeks warm at that smile. It the kind of smile a priest might give -- or maybe a father. There was nothing but good intention behind it, and Faris couldn't help but grin as the Warrior spoke.
'Captain Faris.' Faris laughed at his own name. 'Well, no one's called me that in a while.'
"Not a dream? Well, it sure as hell looks like one, and I'm not daft. I'm either dead or I'm dreaming, and I'm sticking to the latter." Faris crossed his arms decisively. The thought occurred to him that a dream wouldn't have crept up on him so quickly and it certainly wouldn't stand out as clear as a magnifying glass, but Faris refused to think any more on the matter. If he wasn't dreaming then he was dead, and if he wasn't dead...
Well, then maybe he didn't have as tight a grip on reality as he'd once thought.
“I left the pink-haired swordsmen in the forest," the Warrior said,"I was confident that she would be no threat to those people, after all that had transpired. I am sure she will find me again, in her own time."
Faris blinked slowly and then looked at him in shock. "You left...?" he echoed. "What do you mean you just...?" Faris had turned on him in a heartbeat, eyebrows furrowed, and hands tight at his sides. "No threat? Are you daft?! That devil cut in a man in half! I saw it! Blood spraying! Meat flying! I would have flayed that curr if she hadn't done herself in before I got the chance! Then she nearly stabbed you, threw me into a goddamn roof, and that little...glowy trick of hers? You think that was for good? She's a threat, alright, and if she finds you again it'll be at the end of a sword! You have my word on that."
With all of his ranting, Faris hardly heard the Warrior's answer. He hadn't found Chaos.
'Well isn't that the devil's luck?'
"Aye, lad. Well I guess I can't much blame you for that, can I? After all, I haven't seen head nor tails of the thing myself. He's probably still running scared." Faris scowled and glanced sideways at the Warrior. "So how else have you been since then? Come to think of it, I don't think I ever asked for your name..."
“Sir Warrior?!”
The knight's attention shifted past Faris to the voice beyond his shoulder. Faris scowled again and turned to eye the distraction. There was another man in their dream-scape -- someone Faris didn't recognize. His body was like a brick wall -- all bulging muscles and hard edges. He wore red pants, a tunic loosely belted at the waist, and leather hand-guards cinched at the wrist. 'A monk,' Faris thought immediately, though he could have been mistaken. It was the same uniform Galuf and Krile had worn when borrowing power from the crystals. Faris had tried it once too, but never again. He just hadn't felt right without a weapon in his hand.
“Apologies, Sir Monk. I’m afraid I do not recognize you.”
The knight looked confused -- almost a little nervous. Faris raised an eyebrow. He hadn't taken the Warrior for the socially awkward type.
There was a flash of light somewhere behind the monk's shoulder, and Faris didn't miss it this time. Squinting through light, Faris caught an arm, a chest, a head. The light disappeared as quickly as it had come, and in its wake it left a man. He was unremarkable, really, with his tight t-shirt, belts, and pair of too-baggy pants. He had a quiet look about him, as though he was more comfortable hiding patiently behind the bangs of his hair than pushing it aside and asking questions. Faris gave him a quick but curious look before returning his attention to the Warrior. He doubted the newcomer could possibly be more interesting.
Faris didn't have long to wait anyway. When the white and gold woman spoke, her voice seemed to come from all directions at once. She was impossible to ignore.
"I know how you feel. How you all must feel," she started, and Faris gave her a strange look. While Faris certainly knew all about a "strange and alien land," he couldn't say much for "Discord" or "Gods" or "Cycles." In fact, a quick look around proved that her speech hadn't confused only him. In fact, the only one who seemed to have understood a single word of it was the knight, who watched her with a kind of cool resolve. The woman met his eye sadly.
"If you die here," she said, "Your soul will return to whatever Aether drives this planet slowly to it's death."
"Ah..." Faris glanced between the knight and the woman uncertainly. "So you're saying that dying is bad...?" Faris gave the woman the kind of no-nonsense look he'd give a particularly dull member of his crew. "Great. I'll try not to die then."
His sarcasm went largely unnoticed.
The woman glanced towards the empty space to their side, and Faris followed her gaze to find...more light. Flashes of light. Dim pulses of light. Light everywhere, just like the rest of this impossible unreality. At first, Faris thought that the woman might just have distracted herself, but Faris sensed something from beyond that light. Something with eyes. If he squinted hard enough, he thought he might have seen figures in the haze. Other people, as trapped here as he was, and stuck there forever.
"This dream just keeps getting worse..." Faris muttered to himself. The woman continued.
Had Faris had a sharper tongue and a bolder stance, he might have interrupted her speech several times over. "My home was protected?" he wanted to say, "There are a few shattered crystals and some black holes that might say differently." She spoke of friends -- how they weren't the same -- and Faris could only watch her with that same incredulous look as before. "My friends are who they are," he muttered, "Now get to the point or I'm waking up."
She didn't. Or maybe she did. From all her talk of Cycles and Discord, Faris couldn't really tell.
The woman approached them slowly, and for the first time, she met Faris' eye. "You are all... carrying a heavier burden than you know," she said before looking once again to the knight. "Even you, Warrior, who has faithfully pushed yourself to your limits in defense of your home... The only truth I know is that your homes... all of them, have been temporally shattered. Whatever force this is... is powerful enough to transcend space and time..." The woman closed her eyes mournfully. When she looked at the knight again, her eyes had softened. "There was nothing I could do. You have... my deepest apologies."
Faris felt himself twitch. There was a storm on his tongue, but he held it back for politeness' sake. He had the feeling she wasn't talking to him. A feeling backed up by her constant glances to the knight at his side.
"Deep in these mountains lies a stronghold that Chaos himself is likely using. But, it has become evident that he is not playing the part of the enemy..."
Faris' eyes widened. "Chaos is-? ...Wait, what do you mean not an enemy?!" But his question went ignored as the landscape changed. A mountain rose before them, cracking out of the nothing like a chick from its shell. Carved in the center was a gate so tall it nearly touched the sky. Apparently this gate was the key to everything. It was the world's salvation, even though she couldn't say what might exist beyond it. They just had to trust this "Goddess who was no longer a Goddess" and complete what she called "the impossible."
Silence fell as the woman finished. "That's..." Faris tried before pausing, taking a breath, and starting again. "That's the daftest thing I've ever heard!"
He was not the only one to think so.
“Tell me, Cosmos,” the knight said, “Please, tell me why I should trust you. After everything that transpired during the cycles, after all that you had hidden from us back then, why should I trust that you speak the truth this time?” The Warrior's voice trembled with emotion. He stepped towards her, glanced at the others, then eyed her coolly. “If I am daring to march towards death once more, I will do so of my own free will, and not as your pawn. Tell us what you know of this gate. How do you know this world is doomed if it remains closed? What could it possibly contain?”
"Pawn?" Faris echoed. His eyebrows furrowed with the implications of it.
Beside him, Eillien was rambling again. She agreed with the knight, or at least, Faris thought she did. She wanted more information. She questioned what could possibly be behind this gate. She didn't know if she could trust this self-proclaimed goddess or if the woman was "appearing in friendship only to try and conquer us the moment she could reach the knife and aim at our back."
Faris' eyes narrowed. "Or something like that," he said. His jaw was tight as he stepped forward. He met the woman's gaze like a feral dog. He wondered which of them would admit defeat.
"Your brain must have addled if you think we'll trust a word you have to say! A Goddess? That's nonsense and you know it!And while you were talking about 'Discord' and 'Gates' and 'Salvation,' that beast Chaos was killing! Hundreds of people! Smashing them all beneath his feet! And you're telling me he's not an enemy?!"
Faris took another step forward until he stood at the Warrior's side. "So why don't you tell us why we're really here? Why didn't you just ask the knight here, if that's who you wanted? Because the rest of us? We don't know anything about Cycles or Gods or even who you are! That devil did the same thing, going on and on about Cycles and whatever nonsense, only he didn't give us all an invitation! So out with it! What is this, who are you, and why should I trust you?" Faris gave a sharp gesture towards the knight. "Because right now, it looks like he's got more than one reason to tell you to shove it, and I'll take his word years before I take yours."
“Oh, that should be pretty normal, considering we never had such a formal meeting,” Douken stating, though a slight blush coming upon his face when he was addressed with such formality. He was a man of no noble birth, nor was he one with any real special, acknowledged title. If anything, he became a common tournament fighter. It was not like the greatest knights in Cornelia’s kingdom thought it was worthwhile to test his strength personally. “But that is not as important. Where are we? Where is the Princess? Is Sir Garland at least standing by her side?!”
However, before he could get any answers in return, the woman in white began to speak, using strange terminology that nearly everyone in the room did not understand. In fact, it was only Sir Warrior who knew the meaning behind these things. However, as she spoke, her gaze went to everyone but to the Monk. Was he invisible to her?
The name of Chaos sprang yet another spiking headache through the Monk’s head, his eyes dilating crazily as if the idea of focus was completely lost. New images sprang into his head. Images and scenes never seen before from his dreams, and yet it was still difficult to actually see what was happening. Any voice that was played sound massively muffled, but the only thing he could truly make out was the figure of the demon. The being that sprang the headache in the first place… As the monk fought to keep his mind together and straight again, he had missed the rest of her speech, though the backlash from it was massive.
Letting the others speak let the monk catch his breath as reality slowly returned to him, muttering, “Our homes… are gone? Do you really believe… that our homes… are gone?!” Pulling his head up, the monk yelled back, “There is no way that our homes vanished in a mere instant! The stories of old spoke about how Tiamat needed 1,600 years to be able to kill the winds, but the Heroes of Light taking him down along the three other Fiends 2,000 years ago, so how do you expect me to believe that our peaceful home was taken out overnight?!” Again, his mind flashed images of Sir Warrior, the monk, and two others constantly changing in a strange building, but the fuzz could not tell him where it was. All he could tell were the people and the multi-headed dragon.
However, the flashes of these were much quicker, listening onto the demands of everyone else. The warrior had major distrust through his emotionless face. The woman with the spear feared the form of betrayal. The unarmed man had a glance that seemed like fear, and the man with the spear demanded answers up front, declaring that the enemy would be the one who would be more willing to give answers. Either way, it seemed if someone had a concern, someone else had addressed it. All that remained were answers.
[attr="class","mercybod"]Her eyes remained on the mountain as questions were asked, difficult questions. But, they were oh, so easy to answer.
She closed her eyes.
"... You doubt of me. But that doubt... is well deserved." she breathed. "... We were part of a greater design, a system that had played each of us like pawns to it's very will. An ill fated design that was initially brought to fruition with... better intentions. You were indeed my pawns in that war, Warrior. But now..." she opened her eyes, and turned her head to him, her eyes locking with his, a dark presence growing from the mountain behind her. The dark presence warded off by her, and her ability.
"Here, my Warriors... nay, my allies, my power and influence is much greater... but, at a cost." she raised a hand to her face, obscuring her eyes, as if pained. "With every victory... the balance would shift. The power, once evenly divided between myself and Chaos, the same power that allowed each of you to return, no longer exists. Instead, Chaos and I are no longer even tied together... and at this point, even I couldn't control him if I tried.' she sighed, a shaking breath echoing in the plane. "... He is beyond all of us, and, to challenge him directly again would mean the deaths of everyone. Had it not been for the specific warriors that faced him in that city, I fear that more lives would have been lost." she lowered her hands, now looking to the other warriors.
"I am not your Goddess. I am not... a Goddess. Not here. Instead, I... pray to each of you. The fate of this world, the fate of this world is no longer an expected triumph of good... or a bitter victory of evil. You may be compelled to seek out Chaos, but... I doubt he even knows this much of this world..." the darkness behind her faded. She turned towards a tower.
"I am not asking you to trust me. Especially you, Warrior." she said quietly, looking over to him. "But if you wish to know who you are... who you really are... You must fight for this world. Fight with all of your resolve. All of you, everyone who can hear me, fight for your lives... Survive." she closed her eyes and bowed her head. "I am... fragmented. An odd forest. A deep catacomb. A monolithic temple. A subterranean gate. Each of these places could hold answers... They are where the flow of energy from the abyss is strongest. If you can perhaps find a way to seal that energy below... it could very well reveal what is needed to open what is known as the Crystalus Divider. But beware... beware... of him..." she said darkly, a thin, gaunt, horned figure emerging from the shadows, but only for a moment.
(Important Note: Everyone who wants to/will reply has 10 days to do so. Mostly because this is the last round of this thread, and we need to move onto the next one xD )
The Warrior’s heart swelled with pride as the other warriors around him, the other would be pawns, came to his aid; they stood by his side. Just as he was able to lead others during the cycles, just as he was able to lead the warriors of light against Garland and Chaos, here again, he was able to lead those against something that wished to pull the threads of destiny. There was not a lot in this world, or any previous world, that the Warrior knew. He was ignorant in the ways of society, he was unlearned and could easily be considered uneducated.
But, he knew how to fight. He knew how to lead.
He seemed to have forgotten how to follow.
Everyone else’s reactions were expected. Cosmos had dealt each of them a large blow, after all. Faris’ passioned response warmed his heart. Though the nameless knight had been on the other end of that kind of hearty speech before, he knew such strong, sharp words were chosen only because of how much the Captain cared. The way he spoke, it made Faris’ words almost come to life, in a way.
The others; the Warrior did not know the lancer well, but she spoke from experience. She, too, had been betrayed, stabbed in the back by someone who claimed to be an ally. The Monk was … interesting. The way he spoke, his knowledge of the world -- was he, too, from Cornelia? The Warrior had a sharp mind for faces and voices, and the Monk had inquired whether Sir Garland was in company. Only a man who came from an era of peace would ask such a thing; all others only knew Garland as Chaos.
There were many things the Warrior would need to address, but at a later time. This was not the place.
He dared not take his eyes off of Cosmos. His bright blue eyes remained locked with hers; despite the way her sadness tugged at his heart. He could sense her worry, her disappointment, her anxiety. She was tired.
But, so was he.
Cosmos began to speak once more, and the Warrior remained at full attention. He would not trust her, that much was for certain. However, if he knew anything about his former goddess, it was that she did not typically lie. Avoid the truth most certainly, but she was not capable of lies. She was simply talented as shaping words with her tongue, so much that one would not ask many questions. Perhaps that was easy, when she was constantly speaking to blank slates, again and again, as she sent them off to their deaths.
Behind Cosmos, darkness surged. It was a familiar sight to the Warrior, though obviously different in many ways. In the final cycle, the one he had the clearest memories of, most of the world was razed in Chaos’ darkness. Cosmos’ power could only keep so much of it at bay; her sanctuary similar to that of this dream. It seemed taxing on her, however, keeping whatever power this was at bay. The nameless knight’s eyes scanned the background, before focusing back in on the rambling goddess once more.
Chaos was beyond control; no surprise there. The Warrior could tell that from the moment he’d set eyes on the beast. He was very familiar with Chaos, in all of the creature’s forms. As Chaos had landed in Torensten, it was obvious that he was angry, pained, and unchained. He’d fought the warriors that had banded together as if they were merely flies buzzing around his head. The nameless knight was sure that, if Chaos hadn’t decided to leave on his own, they would have suffered a much worse fate. More lives would have been lost.
Thankfully, no word of more massive attacks had reached his ears in weeks. Whatever Chaos was doing now, it was not torturing massive amounts of innocent people.
Cosmos and Chaos. They were nothing but pawns with a little extra will, in whatever game this was. Playthings.
It wasn’t until she spoke of trust, that the Warrior’s eyes narrowed once more. His gloved fingers balled into fists, trembling ever so slightly. His breathing became heavier, his gaze sharp as the blade at his side. The nameless man had very few sore spots to rub, yet she had managed to hit one. She hadn’t even managed to graze it, no, she plunged a blade into his heart. It was clear that he wished to speak up, to point and shout correct accusations, to then turn his back and leave.
Yet, he managed to hang on. His frustrations seeping out, only under his breath.
“You were supposed to tell me who I really am,” the Warrior muttered quietly, his harsh whisper filled with fiery passion, “You kept that from me.”
How many times had Garland gloated about it. Cosmos, and the Nemesis himself, were the only two that the nameless Knight was sure knew his name. He knew that he had one. That he had more of a past than he could remember. Garland taunted it with him constantly, and the dark knight wasn’t one to taunt with a lie. No, his words were just as sharp, pointed, and accurate as his massive blade.
Cosmos kept that secret from him. And the Warrior sacrificed the last link to his name, when he and the other warriors of light purified the world, and Garland was reawoken as the pure Knight of Cornelia.
The knight choked down his frustrations. Now was not the time to argue and fuss. If he could ever confront Cosmos, one on one, that is when he would fight. He had to pick his battles carefully.
The Goddess before them then spoke of locations. Locations that her power was fragmented across. Whatever these locations were, darkness lurked behind them. Her power was keeping it at bay, and they would need to be sealed to keep it away. What darkness, the Warrior wondered silently to himself, could possibly lurk in the depths of the world that was worse than Chaos himself?
Perhaps, it would be best not to find out.
The Warrior allowed a brief silence to rest over the group as Cosmos finished speaking, before he turned to those who remained. He was clearly a conflicted man, hints of anger, of betrayal, of resistance on his face. This was something he wasn’t sure he wanted to dive into. However, he had a duty to the people of this world. He couldn’t protect the innocents of Torensten to the best of his ability. The knight had to make up for such injustice. The people of this world were innocent, and had no reason to die for some petty god’s conflict. They deserved light. They deserved peace.
Bowing his head for a moment, the Warrior pondered what to do next.
“Show us, one of these gates,” he asked the goddess cooly and quietly, before glancing back up to her with his usual, strong-willed voice, “We shall all decide, individually, whether or not to investigate these sites. Each person may choose their own destiny.”
There was a brief pause, before the scenery around the remaining warriors changed. The protection of the light faded, the ghosts of those who weren’t quite physically present disappeared. All that remained were those who had decided to take a glimpse into what Cosmos requested. Those who had even potentially considered it. The temple had completely faded away, and Cosmos had remained behind, unable to exert herself any further, only able to hold together the dream that bonded the remaining warriors.
They were surrounded by dim light, a few torches dimly lighting the area, clearly underground in some area. Before them was a gate, though it was shrouded in darkness, its details completely obscured from view. Because they were in a bonded dream, through Cosmos will, they would only be able to see the darkness lurking underneath, and the power of the light that blocked it from springing forth. It gave off a foreboding aura, an unspeakable power and evil that lay underneath.
All consuming darkness.
The Warrior studied the gate for a moment, attempting to take in any small details that he could, before turning to each of his remaining companions. The past half an hour had been trying, surely, on all of them. There was much information to soak in, a lot to consider. If the nameless knight was any other kind of man, he surely would have been overwhelmed. However, such fates tended to fall his way, more often than not.
These men and women before him, however, should be free to choose their own path.
“Whether or not any of you decide to investigate these points of interest is entirely up to you,” the Warrior spoke briefly, taking a glance back to the gate before them, “However, you must be aware of the danger, and of the darkness that lurks.”
He stepped forward, the light holding back the darkness behind the gate surging soothingly at his presence. The nameless man locked eyes with each warrior before him, wanting to convey his message clearly. He, himself, stood tall, stood proud; a true leader amongst men.
“You are free to choose your own fate. Destiny has no hold on you. No goddess shall command you, and no gods shall drive you,” the Warrior spoke strongly, passionately, “If you are to confront the darkness, do it for yourselves.”
He paused a moment, eyes locking onto Faris. The battle against Torensten flashed before his eyes once more, lighting the fire in his heart.
“Or, fight for the innocent people of this world. They did not invite this disaster upon themselves.”
The Warrior’s hand found the hilt of his sword, gripping it tightly, but not drawing it. He seemed less tense, less stressed than he was in Cosmos’ presence. He stood tall, proud, and strong. He had a reason to do this, to fight the darkness, and to stand up for this world. No petty reasons drove him. No loyalties drove him. He had chosen a reason to fight, for himself. An independent decision.
“I will fight for those who cannot defend themselves against this threat. If you wish to join me, I will be forever in your debt. If you choose not to walk this path to Hell and back, I will hold no grudge against you.”
For all he knew, the Warrior could be leading an army, or merely himself into battle. It did not matter to him. The lives lost in Torensten weighed heavily on his shoulders, spurring him forward. He would protect the people of this world. He would save them.
“What say you?”
I refuse to believe, that I’m nothing more than a machine I refuse to believe, that we can’t learn to see The truth was in a dream I will not kill No I will – believe.
Eillien was glancing back and forth between the collected group. The young man off to the side seemed to be having the largest issue compared to everyone else. Rubbing his fingers against his forehead. She was about to chime up to the young man and tell him to stop that as it could lead to a massive migraine should he not be careful. Her attention slipped from the seemingly normal man and back toward Faris as the sailor began to speak a little more. It was obvious he was clearing his own mind based off of the words she was hearing him speak. There might be some simple teasing she would have to bring up with Faris when next they meet outside this realm.
Though she noticed an almost instant change inside of Faris when the Warrior of Light mentioned some pink haired woman and leaving her within the woods. For some reason it seemed that this was a contentious point between the warriors. Listening to the words from her friend she blinked a couple of times. :: Most certainly a history… Will have to ask Faris about it and I think that it is that battle I heard about. Most certainly will have to ask him. :: As Faris reacted to the news given from Cosmos she could not help but look over at her friend. It was true that all this seemed daft and rather overwhelming and yet she felt that Cosmos was speaking the truth. As inside of her own mind she was seeing very brief flashes of the Echo. To her it was like that power was being overwhelmed due to the amount of figures around her. “So Chaos is the one who attacked Torenstein… Amazing that you were able to turn such a beast away even if only a temporary victory. I cannot imagine fighting him with other people’s lives in the middle.”
Her words were quiet and directed toward the Warrior and Faris as she had been gathering all the information that she could about the battle. She had heard about a pink haired demon that fought all involved and yet there was another she had not met yet but seemed the most interesting because of just how casually she seemed to be able to sling around magic. That was for another time as she focused back in as the Monk began to speak about a familiar name. Tiamat was a name not many knew about and she only knew of the Princess of Dragons and sister to Bahamut because of her constant attacks with the hordes of drakes in her name. “Only two millennia of fighting? Consider yourself lucky that she herself would not come after your home. Her hordes like to harass and kill those of my home. Been doing that as long as we have had recorded history and that has gone back fifty generations…”
The response was toward Douken and yet she did not move as her right hand seemed to clench into a fist before a light glow would surround her hand before she realized that the Eye was attempting to do things to her but it was quickly dissolved into the air around her hand. There was a chance someone would of noticed the flare in energy but she would not allow the corrupting influence to permeate into her mind.
Despite that she would feel Cosmos as she spoke up once more letting all of the insults and slings from the gathered people land upon herself and offer up no words of hostility. Yet she felt a calm emanating from Cosmos. This was the same calm that she had felt from Hydalen. So finally she felt a calming influence cross her mind and she felt the Echo clarify a few flashes from this supposed Cycle. She saw that the Warrior and her had indeed been close and she would return rather quickly to the waking world as she looked ahead toward the others. It was during this time that she felt the darkness behind Cosmos and it seemed that she was using her own considerable strength to combat the darkness as it tried to escape around the gate.
Eillien was about to chime up as the figure suddenly appeared and she hesitated to speak. Raising her hand for a moment before she drew it back and let it hand at her side. Taking a few moments to clear her mind she would open her eyes and look at the Warrior of Light and then the others. The main Warrior who reminded her of the Raging Bull himself in the intensity etched upon his face. Yet she noticed him remain calm and he spoke what was just on the tip of her own tongue. She was thankful he spoke yet she did not back down and she stood there defiantly as they were seemingly transported to in front of one of these gates. Staring at the gate she would attempt to decipher anything that she could. Any sort of marking or anything that could possibly be of use in the future.
Listening to the Warrior speak about the darkness she sighed as she tightened a grip on the parrying dagger hilt she carried on her hip. To her the darkness was something to ever fear. Instead you were to stand and move in front of it and defend others from it. “Destiny does not guide my footsteps. It never has as I have always walked my own path illuminating the way for others to follow me through the darkness. I will stand and fight to protect the people of this world… Cause if our presence somehow created this darkness… Somehow fed into it then I feel it is only right to stand before it. If you are standing up for those who cannot defend themselves then I will gladly stand at your side. “
As she spoke she stood a little taller and took a step forward. Bringing her spear off of her back she stabbed the non bladed side into the Earth as she did so a soft hum would emerge from her lips. It was a soft tune that she remembered from her time alongside a few bards. “Let my spear help you in this Warrior. I will let Hydalen’s light to show through me and through my actions and show why it is I am one of her Chosen.” As the words left her mouth a ring would appear around the spear and six softball sized crystals would appear for a split second as she felt as if despite not hearing Hydalen she had managed to gain her blessing once more.
Final Fantasy V
23
YEARS
Trans Male
Single
Pansexual
245 POSTS
Fin
You've got a lot of brass, or mayhap you're just lacking in brains!
I didn't have time to edit yet, but oh well. FARIS IS MAD
You've got a lot of brass, or mayhap you're just lacking in brains!
Some might have thought challenging a self-proclaimed Goddess to be a fool's game, but if it was, then Faris would gladly call himself a fool before he stood back and accepted the drivel this woman had fed them all. If she was a Goddess, then perhaps she would smite him for his pride and perhaps he'd deserve it with the feral grin he gave her now. Still, Faris would regret nothing while he still stood on his own two feet and while he still called himself his own man. He regretted it all the less in the face of the Warrior's small smile of appreciation. Faris would be damned before he let that man down -- and if it meant standing in the way of gods, then so be it.
All in all, Faris would have expected a lot from a Goddess defied. He'd expected fire and brimstone, lightning and tidal waves, or maybe to just explode where he stood like a popped balloon. What he did not expect was the look of sadness she gave them. "You doubt me, but that doubt is well-deserved." Faris felt his eyebrow raise in disbelief. It wasn't exactly the work of vengeance he'd expected, but at least she promised answers...
Or not, as it turned out. No, the chosen weapon of this Goddess appeared to be petty disregard. Once again, she spoke words that only the Warrior could possibly understand. Once again, she looked at the Warrior with those watery eyes of hers and called him out by name (or title, at least. Faris still didn't know his name). Faris' concerns, and in fact, everyone else's concerns had all gone completely and utterly ignored.
The storm behind Faris' tongue strengthened to gale winds. "Aye, well I'm glad you're making sense then," he muttered because he hadn't tempted fate enough. His hands curled into fists at the restraint it took not to charge forth, shouting his frustrations from here to every corner of the sea.
He had never understood the pettiness of women.
If this was a dream, then it was one of the worst he'd ever had, and that included the one where he'd shown up at the captain's wheel in the nude. If he was dead, well, Faris couldn't think of a better punishment for a stubborn will like himself than to be at the mercy of a power so fickle as this. Faris kept from further confrontation by considered a strange cloud of light to the woman's left. He watched it flicker and shake like a candle's flame and tried very hard not to dwell on the absurdity of the whole situation.
Then she brought up Chaos.
Faris tensed at that name.
"... He is beyond all of us, and, to challenge him directly again would mean the deaths of everyone. Had it not been for the specific warriors that faced him in that city, I fear that more lives would have been lost." She lowered her hands sadly as though those warriors were some great enigma. As though two of them weren't standing right in front of her. Faris' eyes flared.
"Aye, and we'd do it again!" Faris cried, just to call her her out. Just to give himself a moment of defiant recognition. Even when she spoke of something he'd done, even as she praised what would have been lost without his actions, she still hadn't addressed him by name. She still hadn't even looked at him, not like she had with the Warrior, and if Faris had to listen to one more second of this pretentious, holier-than-thou sadness, he thought he might test the sharpness of his sword.
"I am not your Goddess. I am not... a Goddess. Not here. Instead, I... pray to each of you."
'Aye. You pray we won't turn against you, you thankless, yellow-bellied...'
"You may be compelled to seek out Chaos, but... I doubt he even knows this much of this world..."
"A good thing I'm not seeking him for his thoughts then, isn't it?" Faris snapped, fangs bared. Predictably, the woman wasn't looking at him. In fact, she'd turned her back entirely to consider some strange looking tower on the horizon of their personal Hell.
"I am not asking you to trust me. Especially you, Warrior," she said, as though she hadn't been speaking to him this entire time. "But if you wish to know who you are... who you really are... You must fight for this world. Fight with all of your resolve. All of you, everyone who can hear me, fight for your lives... Survive."
"Well, it wasn't like I was about to lay down and give up," Faris muttered with a cocky toss of his hair. Maybe he would have gone on about how all ever did was fight, and that telling someone to survive was just about the most pointless advice to give. Maybe he would have further vented his frustrations if a quiet voice beside him hadn't rendered him speechless.
"You were supposed to tell me who I really am. You kept that from me."
The Warrior. Faris had never seen a man so affected. His eyes were narrowed, his fists balled, his breath shaken. Looking at him, Faris might not have recognized him as the noble, stoic knight he'd once fought alongside. The knight had faced down that yellow demon with hardly a change of expression. He'd looked upon all its carnage with only the most reserved of sadness. Honestly, Faris hadn't thought him capable of much emotion, but this woman had somehow managed something that an eight-story god of destruction hadn't. She had shaken this man to his very core.
"Kept from you? Who you really...?" Faris replayed the last few seconds in his head. 'If you wish to know who you are.' 'You were supposed to tell me.' 'You kept that from me.'
"You don't remember yourself." Faris blinked in realization. "You've got amnesia."
And suddenly, it all made sense. The Warrior's hostility. The woman's sadness. All this talk of pawns. Faris thought of Galuf, and how clueless he'd been when they'd met. He'd seemed a fool with all his confusion and questions. The man had hardly remembered his own name, and it had nearly turned him into a child. If someone of a lesser nature than Bartz had stumbled across him, it wasn't a stretch to think Galuf might have changed for the worse. If a less-than-honest party had offered the man answers...
Well, it wasn't out of the question that he'd have done anything to get them.
"She used you." Faris' eyebrows furrowed. A fire had lit in his chest, and suddenly his eyes were blazing. "That slimy, scheming bi-"
"Show us one of these gates." Faris started at the Warrior's voice. He must have lost track of the conversation, because he had no idea what he was talking about. “We shall all decide, individually, whether or not to investigate these sites. Each person may choose their own destiny.”
For not the first time, Faris' heart burned with loyalty for the man beside him. He didn't know what he meant by gates or investigating, but Faris knew that the Warrior had taken control of the conversation, and that he cared deeply that they all get an equal say in the matter. "Aye, what the knight said," Faris agreed, though he couldn't have cared less about whatever they were talking about. He wanted only to show his support to the man for standing up to the vile witch. No matter what, Faris would stand behind him.
The woman didn't say anything, but she must have agreed because the space before them changed again just as the Warrior had asked. The lights dimmed ominously, the ground beneath them grayed, and suddenly the whole dreamscape didn't look quite so peaceful anymore. There were torches, dirt and uneven cobblestone paths, and looming before them was a gate. Or at least, Faris thought it was a gate. Honestly, with its strange dark aura, it could have been anything, though Faris didn't want to say so. Instead, he just bit his thumb and made a strained kind of humming noise, as though deeply pondering the mystery of what they were seeing.
In all reality, he had no idea what to make of any of it.
Thankfully, the Warrior seemed to have a better idea. “Whether or not any of you decide to investigate these points of interest is entirely up to you. However, you must be aware of the danger, and of the darkness that lurks.” He stepped towards them like a beacon in the darkness. He carried himself with a certain nobility that demanded attention, and when he met each of their eyes, Faris felt the fire return to his heart. This time, it wasn't anger. “You are free to choose your own fate. Destiny has no hold on you. No goddess shall command you, and no gods shall drive you." Faris smirked and nodded heartily at that. “If you are to confront the darkness, do it for yourselves.”
The Warrior paused and met Faris' eye. Something important passed between them, though Faris couldn't say for certain what it was. “Or, fight for the innocent people of this world. They did not invite this disaster upon themselves.”
The fire blazed in Faris' eyes. He nodded again, more seriously this time. They had fought together once, and they would fight together again. For the innocent people who had been ground up beneath that creature's feet. For the people they hadn't managed to save.
“I will fight for those who cannot defend themselves against this threat. If you wish to join me, I will be forever in your debt. If you choose not to walk this path to Hell and back, I will hold no grudge against you.” The Warrior raised his chin proudly -- an unshakable force of good in a senseless world. With one hand on the hilt of his sword, Faris might have mistaken him for a knight in a children's fairy tale. He stood proud, brave, and righteous. "What say you?" he asked, and Faris felt his throat surge with loyalty.
"Aye!" he cried, "We be with you, lad!"
From behind him, that woman dragoon babbled her agreement. As always, Faris couldn't quite follow it, but it ended with a familiar chord. "Let my spear help you in this, Warrior. I will let Hydalen’s light show through me, and through my actions, why I am one of her Chosen.”
Faris let out a laugh as she finished. Shaking his head, he grinned, "You're not the only one chosen to fight." He slung a friendly arm around her shoulders, wincing a little as the spikes of her pauldrons dug into his chest. "I don't know what you're talking about with this 'light' of yours, but we'll all fight together, lass. All of us." Faris released her and took a step towards the Warrior. His eyes blazed with passion. "I'll follow you wherever you go, lad. Whatever fight you're having, you can count on my sword beside you. Let's keep the demons or darkness or whatever it is at bay for a while longer. We've both got enough fight in us for that, I think."
Faris didn't say anything about his amnesia or the Goddess or anything else. That was best saved for another time, if any of this was real at all. "And once we're out of this dream, I think you could do with a stiff drink. On me." Faris grinned wider. "That's a sailor's promise."
Faris laughed again. Maybe this wasn't so bad a dream, after all.
The ideals of trust and faith. The background of the one who wanted followers. The state of all their homes. Questions that were brought up to the one who was called a Goddess being answered vaguely at best, and ignored at worst. It was a conflicting manner that everyone seemed to have trouble grasping, and the woman before them made no real effort to really have them gain her trust. It was uncomfortable to the monk at the very least.
When the monk heard her speak about asking for trust, the monk muttered under her breath, “What do you expect from dodging those arrows?” Trust was never asked for. It was something gained through experience and trials that created the bonds between warriors and spell casters. If she really wanted that trust, she should have done something to actually prove her worth to them.
At least showing them an idea of the current threat (to her at least) was a step in the right direction, but the vagueness was still open to interpretation.
However, during the time the gate was being shown, the purple-haired warrior had already been fuming with rage over what happened between the woman and the Warrior. “I don’t think it’s as simple as saying someone has amnesia,” Douken told Faris as he walked up to him, though his eyes still watched what Cosmos showed the group, “for it is not all memory that has been lost or taken away, just the name. And for him, the simple detail of a name is crucial to him. So much that he refuses to accept any other name given to him. Not even the king or princess of the land can give him a name he would properly accept. That’s why some people have called him the Nameless Knight or simply by his class of Warrior. Hell, you give no declaration of a title, and he will still understand you are speaking with him.
“Well, at least that is the Warrior I am familiar with from my home,” the monk clarified, and even then, most of what he heard was simple rumor. But still, it felt like some of it seemed to of held on some facts, considering this Warrior called him by his entitled class in return.
However, at the end when the illusion of the gate cleared up, the Warrior had made his declaration, paying the idea that they were doing this under their own ambitions versus being because a deity told them to. The first one to answer was the lancer, revealing her spear and a few crystals as she showed her pull to aid. During the moment, though, the monk’s eyes dilated a bit as his mind pushed his vision back to his dreams yet again, cycling through four areas, but ever-numerous variety of three people around him as the monk held up something in the air, each location matching the item he held up. The earthly cavern shown a brown object. A volcanic core showed red. The depths of the ocean held blue. The ruins in the clouds showed green. Though it was only a moment to everyone else, it felt like a few minutes to the monk, having the purple-haired warrior snapping him out of it back to the dream.
“If it’s a lead home, I don’t see why not see what we can do,” the monk admitted. “And who knows, maybe this could show me why the dreams have stopped.” Knowing the monk’s luck, it could even show why the dreams began.
It quickly became clear to the Warrior of Light what kind of people stood before him.
Brave. Selfless. Confident.
Despite the flux of emotions that had passed him before, the nameless knight felt his heart swell with pride. These people, each of them, had stood before Cosmos, they had made their own, individual decisions about her and her request, and had each come to a similar conclusion. Whether it was to help the innocent, defenseless people of this strange new world, or to find a way back to their old one, they each had their own motivations. And, despite the possible dangers, they had all decided to rise.
To protect and help the innocent.
With their decisions made, the Warrior nodded after each person had finished speaking. In this moment, he could not have felt more proud, nor more sure of his own choice. There was a hint of a smile hiding on his lips, a relieved breath that left his lungs. He stood much less tense, much less worried, much less angry.
Though he had agreed to pursue these gates, as Cosmos requested, it was because he decided to. Not out of obligation, not out of orders. He was no pawn this time.
It was the flashing memories; of screams and pleading for help, of blood and corpses beneath Chaos’ claws that drove him.
Around the warriors, the dream began to flicker. The area around them began to dim, more and more, as they were slowly released from Cosmos’ power. The gate was the last thing to vanish from view, still eerily looming behind the Warrior of Light, whispers of a dark terror barely audible as it disappeared entirely from view.
Slowly, each of his new allies before him began to vanish as well; being released back to their own minds, back to reality.
“I place my trust in each of you,” the Warrior spoke, as they each began to flicker from view, “To find these gates. To gather what information you can. To take whatever actions you may deem necessary to protect innocent people.”
His blue eyes found Faris one last time; his brother-in-arms against Chaos.
“Our paths will cross again soon, I am sure. I will be needing that drink.”
And with that, each of the warrior’s vanished; all to wake up in their own harsh realities once more.
I refuse to believe, that I’m nothing more than a machine I refuse to believe, that we can’t learn to see The truth was in a dream I will not kill No I will – believe.
