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year 5, quarter 3
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[attr=class,bulk] Prompto seemed a little struck when Yuna suggested that they go find Caius tomorrow instead, and he quickly back-tracked. He seemed to sincerely want her to know that he was having a good time, and Yuna gave him a small smile in return. “No, it’s alright. I understand. If you’d met any of my guardians, I don’t know what I would have done…” Instead it had been nearly a year and a half with no news of home and even less news of Tidus. She was left to make new friends instead and go on dates with boys who were nice but that she never saw again.
Well. That wasn’t fair to Prompto. He could be different.
Lowering her head so that her hair covered her face, Yuna forced a smile before looking back up. Prompto seemed to have latched onto the fact that Caius had been looking for Noctis, but Yuna could only shake her head solemnly. “I’m sorry. I’m not sure if Noctis is here. It seemed personal to Caius, so I didn’t want to pry…” She was fairly certain that he had alluded to finding his king once at a restaurant, but that had been several missions ago and Caius hadn’t broached the topic again. She didn’t know if that meant that something had gone awry or if Noctis just wasn’t here anymore. Either way, she didn’t want to make Prompto worry.
Unfortunately hearing Ardyn’s name seemed to make him do more than worry. His freckled face became downright pale and he leapt to his feet as if the name itself were poison. Panic was written all over the boy’s face and words tumbled out of his mouth like he wasn’t getting enough air. But it was when Prompto stumbled that Yuna grew really alarmed.
“Prompto. Prompto, you need to breathe.” Springing after him, Yuna caught him by the hand, clasping one of his in both of hers. His fingers outside of the leather glove were a little sticky from the cinnamon roll, but she didn’t mind. “Esuna.” As the white magic washed over them, she gave him a small smile. “Did it work? You seemed a little dizzy.”
Prompto seemed to come back to himself regardless, and Yuna let go of his hand as he insisted that she tell him everything. She hesitated, looking him over to make sure that he was alright before she nodded solemnly. “I’ve only met him twice, but I’ll tell you everything I know. I’ve...seen how dangerous he can be. But I’m guessing you must know that better than I do.”
Glancing to the side, Yuna pointed out the Ferris Wheel in the distance. “Do you want to talk there maybe?” The location had made sense in her head, but now that the words were out there, it occurred to her how ridiculous it was to discuss Ardyn on a carnival ride. Heat flooded her cheeks, and she clasped her hands together as she rushed to explain. “I meant that...it’s a slow ride. There would be time to talk. And...I thought maybe it would make you feel better.”
[attr=class,bulk] Yuna could breathe a little easier from behind Shiva’s protective stance, but it was the extinguished flames that really brought her relief. The smoke had grown so suffocatingly thick that she doubted she could have remained there much longer if the fire had continued. However much it would have hurt, she might have been forced to abandon Kimahri in that case. Thankfully Shiva had eliminated any need for that.
Her clone didn’t look particularly surprised by the aeon in front of her, but then Yuna assumed that the creature had gotten a good look inside of Kimahri’s head. The thought enraged her, and she stiffened in place as the doppelganger bent down to grab the Ronso’s spear. “Don’t touch him,” she insisted, even though the celestial weapon was obviously separate. Still, the creature had violated him enough already without making more of a pont.
“You’re wrong!” Maybe it was pointless to engage the unknown fiend in conversation, but it seemed to know exactly which buttons to push to make Yuna feel like she had to defend Kimahri. “Even if we can’t go home. Spira will always remember what he did for the world. And his people were brave warriors who risked everything to help us. I-...I will not take their sacrifice in vain!” Truthfully, it had been hard not to blame herself for how many of the Ronso had fallen at Seymour Guado’s hands. They had promised her that they would crush any enemies behind her, and they had died for it. It had taken Yuna a long time to be able to place the blame firmly where it belonged. The blue-haired unsent had haunted her every step once, but he was slowly becoming only a memory.
Until his voice came from the creature’s mouth.
Yuna wasn’t able to control her flinch backwards. Her twin had morphed into the half-Guado that she had hoped to never see again. There were even details that she herself had forgotten--how much he had towered over her in height, the oily malice in his voice, the way his serene smile hid how warped his thoughts really were. “Maester Seymour,” she breathed out on instinct, even though she had watched the transformation. The real Seymour was gone. She had sent him during their final confrontation inside of Sin, so he was resting in whatever measure of peace he had been able to find. This creature was only trying to disarm her.
He used the man’s words from the summit of Mt. Gagazet against her, and Yuna raised her chin in defiance. Kimahri bent into a battle pose, and in front of her, Shiva tensed in preparation to match. “No. We will live and face our sorrow, as we always have before. I have nothing more to discuss with you!”
The fiend seemed to feel the same way as Kimahri suddenly sprang forward with his spear outstretched. Yuna knew how powerful his blows were, so she quickly brought her staff down in a spell. “Protect.” The barrier against physical attacks formed in front of her, but Shiva leapt forward to meet his spear before it could touch her anyway. The aeon stretched out a graceful hand as ice was flung at Kimahri in a clear Blizzara spell.
“Wait!” Yuna stepped forward to direct Shiva towards the spectre of Seymour behind Kimahri instead. The creature’s goal might be for Yuna and Kimahri to fight, and she would give it that. But the fiend was still the real threat here and needed to be taken care of. A summoner and her aeons were connected at every level, so Yuna didn’t need to explain her intentions out loud. Twirling her staff, she called down a spell from the sky instead. “Thundara!”
The thunder spell was directed towards Kimahri--even if it didn’t hit the Ronso, Yuna intended to drive him away from who he was protecting. Given the opening, Shiva floated forward to engage the false Seymour in battle instead, the Heavenly Strike ability rising to her fingertips. With that completed, Yuna turned to face her oldest guardian, her heart pounding loudly in her ears.
“I will be your opponent, Kimahri.” All she had to do was buy Shiva enough time.
[attr=class,bulk] If Yuna had thought that Prompto was excitable before, it was nothing compared to how much his eyes sparkled as soon as he heard that she knew someone from his world. As soon as she finished, he was off on an explanation about how Noctis was actually still a prince, using so many strange words that it was impossible for Yuna to follow his reasoning. She supposed that he would know best though.
“Oh, really? I could have sworn Caius called Noctis his king. The king of light maybe?” Yuna was mostly just musing to herself, so she shook her head with a slight smile afterward. “I must have misunderstood though. And of course you aren’t nobody! A monster hunter who runs around with a prince sounds like a wonderful story. I’m sure you’ve seen so many things.” She hoped her words would cheer him up after he casually put himself down in relation to his friend. Yuna sensed that his inferiority complex ran a bit deeper than he was even letting on, but that probably wasn’t something you brought up on a first date. Better to keep it light unless Prompto went there first.
Prompto expressed excitement about meeting Caius, and Yuna nodded emphatically. It wasn’t often that she got to bring people together who were from the same world, and she was happy to be able to do so. “Absolutely! Maybe...tomorrow?” Yuna smiled a little sheepishly. “Even if we wanted to cut our date short, Caius and Celes both enrolled in the dating event too, so there would be no one at the Dragonblades’ base right now.” She glanced down at the remains of her cinnamon roll, feeling her cheeks grow a little warm. “...And I’m enjoying myself anyway.”
Prompto seemed to be working himself up with the possibility of Caius being able to introduce him to other people from Eos. Yuna felt her smile slip a little as he asked if she knew anything about that. It might have been a rhetorical question, but she still felt like she owed him an answer. “Well...yes. I’m sure there’s others he hasn’t mentioned to me, but I know there was a man from his past, and he had a lead on Noctis at one point.” Yuna hesitated, unsure if she should continue or not. His warm smile and the upbeat carnival music surrounding them were in such contrast to the terrifying man that she’d encountered in a hospital last year. It felt wrong to do this here, but Prompto deserved to be on his guard.
“...I met someone else from Eos once, but I haven’t seen him in a long time. I hope he’s gone,” Yuna admitted as she sat up on her knees. What was left of her cinnamon roll stayed on the plate. She’d lost all taste for it. “Have you heard of Ardyn? Caius made him sound infamous.”
[attr=class,bulk] Esuna had failed. Yuna knew it instantly in the way that Kimahri rose to his feet. His movements were erratic, and even though it was getting hard to see through the haze of smoke in the air, his yellow eyes blazed brightly through. He still didn’t recognize her. Whatever hold the forest had over him, it wasn’t going to be cured easily.
“Not an ailment then...” Yuna coughed into what remained of her sleeve. Her eyes were starting to water from the smoke, but she forced herself to stand her ground as she searched desperately for a path forward. The vines were clearly what was affecting him, but it hurt him too much to remove them manually. There had to be a way to get them to let go on their own.
Unless...she needed to find their source?
The Headstone Forest had always been eerily good at reading the people who ventured into its depths. Yuna had experienced firsthand that the visions that could strike at any time were specifically tailored to cut deep into the victim’s psyche. She’d wondered before if there was something within the trees that reacted to a person’s thoughts--something like the Farplane for instance. So while Yuna gripped her staff tighter when a girl suddenly stepped out from around Kimahri, she wasn’t altogether surprised at the timing.
It was like looking in a mirror. The young woman looked exactly like her, but in an ethereal, unblemished way that was just slightly off. The real Yuna certainly didn’t look anything like her at this moment with her burnt clothing, scorched wounds, and messy hair. If that was specifically designed to make her feel inferior, then it couldn’t have worked any better.
Her doppelganger reached up as if she were going to touch the Ronso’s broken horn. Yuna stretched out a hand, very nearly shouting at her to stop, but the creature lowered her arm and spoke instead. Her words made Yuna’s stomach clench even more than the off-putting echo behind her voice. Lowering her head for a moment, Yuna very nearly let the despair wash over her before her hands tightened their grip on her staff instead.
Raising her head, she looked at the shapeshifter with blazing eyes. “You’re right. He deserves to follow his own path. And I’ll see that he finds it, even if I have to fight you both!” Stepping back towards the flames, Yuna stretched out her arms and looked up towards the sky in a gesture that Kimhari would find familiar if he were in his right mind. She hoped that he would at least subconsciously recognize the mark of a summoning and stay back as a cold wind started to whip through the clearing. If she were back on Spira, then Ifrit may have been a better choice given their hellish surroundings, but Shiva had been the only aeon to answer Yuna’s calls ever since she had set foot on Zephon. She would just have to pray that the aeon would weaken the fire and not the other way around.
The cold air around her was a welcome change from the burning heat, and as Shiva descended in front of her, Yuna had to wonder a little sadly what Kimahri would make of her changed appearance if they both survived this. Unlike on Spira, the Shiva of Zephon was clothed in icy armor that glinted in various shades of purple and blue, but there was no time to puzzle about that now. Eyeing her other self cautiously, Yuna gripped her staff tightly to prepare for what was to come.
[attr=class,bulk] Yuna had assumed that the vines were constricting Kimahri’s airflow, but she hadn’t realized just how deeply they clung to him. She had expected resistance as she hauled one tendril away from his body, but the plant left behind a litany of puncture wounds where it had been nestled among his fur. Yuna’s heart squeezed a little at the sight of so much blood on her friend, and it renewed her determination to see the thing burn.
Unfortunately its agony at her spell seemed to be nothing compared to Kimahri’s.
The Ronso’s entire body seized up, and Yuna grabbed at his shoulder in horror as flecks of foam started leaking from his mouth. “Kimahri! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-!” A roar cut her off, and she flinched backwards an inch or two at the sheer volume of his voice, but he was right. Her intentions didn’t mean anything. Yuna might have only had one chance to save him, and she’d chosen wrong.
She needed her staff. Perhaps this was some sort of status effect unique to the Headstone Forest? It did seem similar to the Confusion that plants on Bikanel Island could inflict. If so, then Yuna could cure it, but it would help to have her staff for a spell like that. Before Yuna could move though, Kimahri suddenly reared back and brought his arm up towards his face in a familiar motion. If she had never seen one of his Ronso Rages before, then she would have gotten hit dead on, but she had seen him fight so often that she knew its significance immediately.
Gasping, she leapt to her feet and sprang towards a nearby tree, doing her best to shield herself behind it. She didn’t know which of his blue magic attacks was coming, but a scorching rush of heat that singed her flesh and set the forest blazing to life in a crackling mass of fire answered that quickly enough. Fire Breath. Was that his answer to her pathetic attempt at help? Her stomach sank, and she looked up to see that the tree she’d used for shelter had lit up in flames that spread from branch to branch faster than a natural fire would have.
Her staff.
The path behind her was blocked by fire, but she needed it for Kimahri’s sake. Now more than ever. Stealing herself, Yuna leapt towards the crackling flames, feeling the heat worse than ever. “Watera!” She doused herself as much as the fire hoping that it would prevent her dress or sleeves from burning before she sprang through. Something sharp and hot licked at her exposed upper arms, but she clenched her teeth and ignored it as she scooped up the long rod where it lay in the grass.
Coughing, she emerged back into the clearing with it, pressing one hand over her mouth in an attempt to breathe easier. The smoke was becoming too thick to breathe here, but she had one thing to try before she could get them to a safer location. She could channel her magic much easier now with her rod as a focus, so Yuna brought it down in front of her and looked up again at the hurt Ronso. “Esuna.”
[attr=class,bulk] Yuna was a little surprised when Caius laid a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. He usually wasn’t the most physically affectionate person, but she found that she was grateful for it this time. When confronted with no survivors and a beach full of the bodies of monsters, this entire mission’s ending had put her in low spirits. It helped to have a friend around.
Caius had some wise words of advice, and Yuna nodded slowly as she tried to take them to heart. She wasn’t used to failure, but then, she wasn’t used to taking on smaller jobs like these. Her life as a summoner had revolved entirely around one job. Defeat Sin. There had been no room for error there. Yuna was still adjusting to the life of a mercenary, so it helped to hear from someone with more experience like Caius.
“...Thank you. Really.” She gave him a faint smile over her shoulder before looking towards the blue house in the distance. They’d turned out the lamp that had been left burning in the window, and it made the house look far more abandoned than it had when they had first approached. She wondered if anyone would ever live there again, or if its history would lead to it being torn down. With a basement like that, she wasn’t sure that she could picture any other fate for it.
Yuna gave a quick bow in its direction--there was no one left to perform a sending for, but it still felt appropriate--before she straightened up and turned to face Caius. “I’ll do my best. Thanks for coming with me.” She judged the cloudy sky, grateful that it had stopped raining for the moment.
“I guess we should go report what happened before we get any wetter.” Yuna reached out to pat Vordun to show that she hadn’t forgotten him either. “And thank you for coming too of course. You always manage to save us both, Vordun.” Was she covering up how bad she felt about the mission? A little, but she was doing her best to take what Caius had said to heart. Yuna would continue to fight at her best and strive to do better. For now, it was time to head back to Torensten and report what they’d seen.
[attr=class,bulk] Yuna had to giggle a little at how much Prompto was enjoying the pastry. She was suddenly glad that she’d snuck him a little extra, though she was surprised that he didn’t bother to take off his gloves first before eating. She would think that icing would be hard to clean off leather, but she supposed that was up to him to deal with later if he wanted to eat it that way. Maybe he had been too eager to wait. Or had a nasty scar he wanted to hide. It was really none of her business.
Yuna nodded as he listed off his friends from back home. Ignis and Gladio didn’t ring any bells for her, but the name Noctis struck a chord. She didn’t think that she’d met anyone with that name or anything, but she was positive that someone had spoken to her about a Noctis. If only she could remember who.
That feeling of uneasiness only grew when he mentioned daemons of all creatures. The plague that had ravaged Provo a year ago had largely vanished, but even the name still made her think of cloying hospital air and the yellow-eyed man who had spread the disease. Ardyn had only been toying with her, but it had still taken months after the incident for her to relax again. In contrast, Yuna couldn’t even imagine how Caius must feel about him or how he was able to sleep at night.
Caius.
Yuna sat bolt upright, setting the remnants of her cinnamon roll down on the plate as she suddenly remembered where she’d heard of Noctis.
“You’re from Eos, aren’t you? You must be if you have daemons.” Prompto hadn’t mentioned the eternal night that Caius had lived through, which seemed a little odd, but they could clear that up later. “The leader of my guild is from Eos as well! He actually served as a kingsglaive for King Noctis. Maybe you’d know him? His name’s Caius.” Come to think of it, Prompto didn’t really seem to be the type to rub shoulders with kings though. Yuna liked that about him of course! She admired what she’d seen of his care-free spirit so far. It just made her a little more doubtful that Caius’ Noctis and Prompto’s Noctis could be the same person.
“Is Noctis a common name? It must be if your friend isn’t royalty,” she mused a bit sheepishly. “I’d be happy to introduce you to Caius though. He actually lives here in Torensten.” It was probably better to lead with someone friendly before she warned him that Ardyn was also here. There was no rush. Truthfully, it had been so long that Yuna wasn’t even positive that he was still lurking around Zephon. If anyone could have found a way home, she wouldn’t put it past the dangerous older man.
Thankfully, Prompto didn’t seem to find her earlier comments about teaming up awkward or embarrassing, so Yuna nodded with slightly reddened cheeks about the possibility of working a job together. “I’d like that the next time you’re in Provo. I prefer to work in groups too. I mostly use white magic and summon, so I really work best in the back…” She was working on learning how to use a dagger with Celes, but they were both so busy that they hadn’t had the chance to meet up lately unfortunately. Maybe soon.
“Let me guess. You mostly use guns?” Yuna asked with a smile. “I guess you also need distance then.”
[attr=class,bulk] Something was wrong. Yuna had known that on some level when she’d reached for Kimahri, but she’d been too relieved to really process what she was seeing until now. There was no sign of recognition in his eyes, and he made no move to return her embrace. If anything, his body seemed to stiffen when she touched him as the odd red tendrils spread across his fur squeezed in like a vice.
The Ronso snarled in her face as he let his spear drop and suddenly fell to his knees. Yuna felt her heart sink as he began viciously clawing at his own throat. His roar had never once been directed at her before, and the sound sent a little jolt of fear through her that she didn’t like associating with Kimahri. Even worse, he began foaming at the mouth in a way that made it clear he couldn’t breathe.
“Kimahri!” Yuna fell to her knees next to him and stared at him in horror for a moment before trying to reach for one of the thin scarlet vines wrapped around him. They were the only thing that was out of place that was visible to her, so Yuna could only conclude that they were hurting him. Before she could make contact with the plant though, Kimahri began to lash out with his claws. Yuna was forced to fall back as one struck her arm, and she let out a gasp of pain as the sensation caught up with her. Blood was trickling down her arm and dotting against her silk sleeve, and she clasped one hand over the wound as she stumbled to her feet.
“Cure,” she murmured to stem the bleeding before backing away another step or two from the raging Ronso. Her instincts screamed at her to run away and grab her staff from where she’d dropped it. She might have listened if it had been anyone else who had attacked her, but this was Kimahri. The only person who had always been by her side. Always. Even when she had been new to Besaid or when no one else had supported her decision to become a summoner, Yuna hadn’t been alone because she’d had Kimahri. He had quietly supported her for over a decade, and she could never turn her back on him.
These weren’t his actions. Yuna didn’t know how, but she’d stand her ground until she could find out what was happening to him.
“I won’t leave you,” she promised him earnestly, clasping her hands in front of her in preparation of casting a spell. It wouldn’t be as focused without her staff, but she’d have to manage. “Let me be your guardian this time.”
With that, Yuna cast Nul-Blaze on Kimahri, waiting until there was an orange ball circling above his head to indicate that he was briefly immune to fire magic before she ran back towards him. She didn’t know if she could avoid any of his attacks--physical fights weren’t really her strong suit--but she did her best to duck under his arms and grab onto one of the plant tendrils. Hauling it as far away from his body as her slender arms would allow, she called upon one of the few Black Magic spells that she’d picked up near the end of her pilgrimage. “Fira.”
[attr=class,bulk] Balthier didn’t appear to have heard of Shiva before, which made Yuna blink a little in surprise. Every offworlder that she’d come across so far had seemed to know their own versions of the aeon, not to mention the one that this world had. It was a little disconcerting to not have the name instantly recognized. She wondered if that meant there were no summons at all where he was from.
“I’m a summoner,” she explained a little sheepishly. Yuna was used to having the term not have the same context on Zephon, but she wasn’t used to someone not knowing what it was at all. “I can call on my aeons for assistance, but Shiva is the only one I’ve managed to bring forth here. Maybe she could help us get out if we need it.”
The way out wasn’t immediately pressing though, even if it was nagging at the back of Yuna’s mind. The path forward was much more imminent. Glancing up at the subtly glowing door, Yuna stepped back and tried to observe the entire story that the door was telling them. She nodded along with Balthier’s observations even if she didn’t have the slightest idea what he meant by magitechnology. Yuna could barely handle normal machina at this point without throwing magic into the mix.
“I agree,” Yuna said when the pirate concluded that their best bet was to push all three indentations at the same time. Doing that was easier said than done though, and she glanced at the brunette man a little curiously when he asked if she knew the float spell.
“I’ve never heard of it,” she was forced to admit. “It sounds like it would be incredibly useful right about now though…” Yuna took the moment to judge the distance to the top against Balthier’s height before clasping her hands together and turning to face him. “Alright! It looks like I’ll just have to stand on your shoulders.” Suddenly worried that she had been presumptuous, her confident look quickly morphed into a more anxious one. “That is...I suppose you could try standing on mine if you’d rather…”
[attr=class,bulk] Cloud agreed that he probably shouldn’t confront Sephiroth alone next time, but in the end Yuna wasn’t much more than a stranger to him. She might never know whether or not he listened, but she hoped that he would. He seemed independent to a fault, but Yuna was in no place to criticize that. It was a bit like looking into a mirror at every single time that she’d left her guardians behind to handle something herself.
“Tifa and Aerith...” Yuna repeated, doing her best to commit the directions he gave to memory. The names didn’t ring any bells, but maybe Caius had met them before since he clearly knew Cloud. “Alright! Just leave it to us. It shouldn’t be hard to find the bar.”
Cloud was starting to look like he was drifting off toward sleep, but he seemed to realize that fact himself as he mumbled that he better rest. Yuna didn’t blame him. The amount of pain that he was in must have been intense even after so many healing spells. “Of course. I’ll come wake you up later to change your bandages. If you need anything before then, just let me know.” Once he was on his feet, she’d really like to move him to a proper bed too. It was a little embarrassing to just leave him on the couch, but Yuna wasn’t going to be able to move him alone without hurting him more.
As she rose to her feet, Cloud thanked her for helping him. Completely out of habit, she gave him a slight bow with her hands clasped in front of her. She’d quickly learned that bowing wasn’t done much here on Zephon, but it was hard to change something that she’d been taught to do since she was a child. “I don’t mind, Cloud. I like to help where I can. Though I might have some words if someone brought your Sephiroth here.” Really, she hadn’t been sure at the time that Cloud hadn’t been at fault for the skirmish, but she’d decided to trust Caius’ judgement until proven otherwise. She was just glad that she hadn’t accidentally healed a would-be murderer.
“Good night Cloud,” She finally added, taking one last look at the injured blond man before turning back to lightly step into the kitchen on the way to her bedroom. If he was settled in for the next few hours, then Yuna thought that she could use a little more sleep herself.
