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year 5, quarter 3
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“There,” Yuna smiled at her patient, straightening up from the teenagers’s bedside as she brushed a few stray pieces of stone off her long skirt. The boy’s parents rushed forward to check on him, and Yuna took a couple respectful steps backward to give the family some space. “There shouldn’t be any lasting damage from the petrification. Just try not to stray too far off the path when you’re traveling anymore. Coeurls can do a lot worse than that…”
The boy was actually incredibly lucky that was all the cat-like monster had done to him, but she didn’t think that either the boy or his parents needed to hear that. They’d had enough of a scare today.
As Yuna started packing up to leave, the boy’s mother approached her looking shaken. “Thank you so much. Supplies have been so scarce at the market that prices have shot up. We weren’t sure what to do when we couldn’t even afford a soft…”
“It was no trouble at all,” Yuna assured her, though a slight frown crossed her face that the inflation in the area was so high. She was currently in a secluded western suburb of Torensten, and she didn’t think that anything like that was happening in the main marketplaces yet. Still, maybe she’d better stock up on curatives while she had the chance if this was going to be a trend.
Yuna tried to politely decline payment--a simple Esuna spell wasn’t worth much in her opinion--but the parents hastily pressed a few coins in her hand as she was leaving, so she was left staring down at the gil in her palm as the door closed behind her.
With a small sigh, Yuna transferred the money to her bag, deciding that it would help pay for her room tonight at any rate. She had just returned to Torensten a few days ago, and as she set off down the street, she realized that she had missed the smell of smoke and fresh fish in the air. This side of the city was closer to the coast than she had been while on Zephon yet so far, so there was also a tang of salt that she wasn’t used to but that reminded her of Spira. The thought brightened her up considerably, and she was so lost in thought, she nearly didn’t notice that a man was trying to get her attention.
“Excuse me, are you the healer that was here? The one with the Dragonblades?”
Yuna turned around to meet the eyes of a shorter man who was dressed a bit too nice to live in this neighborhood. He looked more like he belonged in the area where the politicians lived, but Yuna gave him a polite smile anyway. “Yes. I’m Yuna. Can I help you with anything?”
The man offered her a sealed letter that Yuna instinctively took before even hearing his explanation. “I was heading to your base now, but would you be able to deliver that for me instead? It’s about the supply routes drying up out west. There’s some materials we collect along the Pale Coast, but several of our merchants haven’t returned lately. We were hoping to hire the Dragonblades to look into what might have happened.”
Yuna frowned, recalling what the petrified boy’s mother had said before she inclined her head to the man. “Of course. I’ll head there first thing to deliver the message.”
“Thank you.” The man hesitated slightly, and Yuna regarded him patiently until he eventually handed her a small slip of paper on top of the letter.
“As a personal request. While you were there...would you mind checking this address? It’s a house near the beach.” The man looked nervous now, and a tad apologetic as he explained. “My wife was supposed to return this morning. I’m sure she’s just delayed, but…”
Yuna’s eyes softened, and she gave the man a more genuine smile. “We’ll check while we’re there.” She could tell without asking that he was worried his wife might have gotten caught up in whatever was keeping the merchants, which was a reasonable fear if there was a monster responsible, but she’d never dream of saying that to him. Hope was an important thing to hold onto.
As they said their good-byes, Yuna turned to leave, glancing down at the two items that she’d been given. It looked like she needed to make a visit to their base to deliver them as promised. Not that Yuna minded taking on this one herself, but she could use a companion when she wasn’t sure exactly what she’d encounter. Part of her hoped that either Caius or Celes was in town. She rather missed them.
***
After a few hours, Yuna was ready to leave, shielding her eyes from the sun as she waited near a chocobo stable on the outskirts of Torensten. If Caius brought Vordun along, then chocobos wouldn’t really be needed of course, but Yuna wasn’t yet sure who was joining her. She’d left both items that the man had given her at the base, along with a meeting place and a request for one other person. All that was left was to wait and see who her partner would be.
Caius brushed aside Yuna’s comments that she had ruined the mood, but she wasn’t sure how much she believed him based on how tired he looked. There was most likely a better time and place where she could have brought all of this up, despite how naturally it had come up in conversation here. Caius was already dealing with enough without this to think about too, but it was too late for her to take it back now. Yuna vowed to be more careful next time instead.
Caius brought up that he probably needed to get back to work, and Yuna nodded respectfully, judging from the angle of the sun streaming in through the windows that they had been talking for a few hours now. “Of course. I don’t want to keep you away from your jobs.” Yuna probably needed to get back on the road herself, so she swung her bag over one shoulder and gathered her staff from where she’d leaned it against the wall. Caius had been sipping a drink when Yuna had first approached, but she’d been too engrossed in their conversation to order anything herself other than the complimentary water, so unlike Caius, she didn’t need to wait for a check. She still left a coin on the table for the waitress’ trouble, and she was preparing to stand up when her friend broached another question.
Yuna felt her smile drop a bit at the topic. Honestly, it wasn’t at all unexpected. What had happened with Darlene was the shoopuf in the room, wasn’t it? She was only surprised that it had taken one of them this long to bring it up. Maybe neither of them had wanted to.
“I don’t resent you, Caius.” Yuna folded her hands in her lap as she tried her best to get her thoughts together. “I...needed time to process what happened. And I don’t think I’ll ever like remembering it,” she admitted. “But it needed to be done. Maybe we could have arrested her, but there were so many of her men there and so many people who needed help. It would have been a nightmare, and a lot of innocent people might have died. But you took care of the problem, and we were able to help everyone escape without anyone getting hurt anymore. I could never resent you for that.”
Smiling slightly, Yuna got to her feet, though she stayed standing by the table. “Anyway, you helped give me a place in this world back when I was still floundering. You’ll always have my respect. Even if I need to yell at you,” she added teasingly before dropping into a slight bow. She was well aware at this point that bowing wasn’t really done in Zephon, but she liked to keep at least that tradition alive with her. It was like keeping a little bit of Spira around.
Straightening up, Yuna gave Caius one last smile. “Keep me updated. I’ll definitely swing by the base more often now that I’m back in the area.”
Kuja laughed along with her when Yuna said that she thought he would look rather nice performing the sending, and she was glad that he wasn’t offended. She’d meant that genuinely, after all. She thought his clothes were beautiful, if bold for a man. They reminded her of home.
“Restrictive?” Yuna touched her chin and tilted her head, deciding that he must be referring to the shoulder pauldrons. She didn’t see what else could have bothered his movements too badly. Privately, she wasn’t sure why he bothered to protect his shoulders when he left his abdomen and legs so wide open, but she thought it might have been rude to ask.
“Truthfully, I thought you might have been from Spira when I first saw you,” she said instead with a laugh. “It’s so hot back home. I’ve never really understood why some clothing is considered scandalous here.”
Kuja got a bit of an odd expression when Yuna first explained Sin, but she couldn’t even begin to identify what it meant. Still, she thought that she’d gotten a better idea of what he was thinking when he suggested delicately that perhaps aeons were not the best means of defeating Sin when it had been over a thousand years.
“Oh,” Yuna said with a faint smile, seeing her mistake. “I’m sorry. We...did try other ways at first. At least I’ve been told. But aeons are the only thing that’s ever been successful.” Her father’s face flashed through her mind, and Yuna determinedly watched the tree roots that she was stepping over as she weighed her next words. “Sin has been killed five times before now. Each time there was a period of calm for ten years, but then...it’s always been reborn.”
Until now. Declan’s story prodded at Yuna to remind her that perhaps there was a sixth High Summoner now and one that had killed Sin for good, but she still didn’t like to dwell on the possibility too hard when she couldn’t remember. It was too frustrating and personal a matter to share with a near stranger, so Yuna decided to stick to the facts. She’d explain only what she knew to be true.
Yuna gave Kuja a small smile when he said that she must be very determined. “Thank you. It’s...hard not to do something. After everything that Sin’s done, I wouldn’t be happy just sitting by.”
After so long knowing that her impending death was creeping closer, it was still so odd to be in a world like Zephon without a major global threat. Yuna turned her eyes in front of them before laughing weakly. “I’m sorry. I’ve been talking for so long...You should tell me more about yourself. You must have studied magic for a long time.”
Yuna wanted to slide down under the table when Faris laughed at her questions about his safety. He seemed to brush most of them off. He didn’t deny that it could be dangerous necessarily, but he seemed to find that the freedom and exhilaration made the risks well worth it.
“But-” Yuna started, and then she bit her lip to stop herself. There had been no Sin on his world, as impossible a concept as that was for her to wrap her mind around. Faris might be risking capture and execution for thievery every time he set sail, but he wasn’t risking an encounter that few had ever escaped from. She needed to separate her fear of what lurked in Spira’s depths to what he was telling her now. They weren’t related.
Yuna gave Faris a slightly startled look when he explained that he had been raised by pirates after they’d saved him from drowning. “...I’m sorry to hear that. Do you remember it?” She was guessing that he must have been young if he considered the pirates to be his family rather than his birth parents. She wondered if Faris remembered where he had come from, but she ducked her head before the alcohol could loosen her tongue enough to make her ask. That would have been prying to a nearly rude degree. Either his parents had died in the accident that had left Faris drifting, or they had abandoned him at sea. Neither were topics that she wanted to make him dwell on before he was ready to.
Faris seemed to grow serious for a moment, looking her dead in the eye as he reinforced that pirating was his way of life. He finally gave her some insight as to why he disliked Caius--evidently he had tried to tell Faris that he was a better person than that. Yuna could understand why Caius would say that. Sitting here, she could tell that the boy had a good heart. Why else would he be so determined that she be under no illusions about who he was? He was an honest thief. The contradiction made her want to giggle.
“I’m not like you and I’m not like him, and that’s not something you have to accept.” The bubble of laughter died in Yuna, and she glanced to the side with a frown.
“...No. You’re right. That’s probably not something I could ever understand very well.” Yuna could comprehend stealing from necessity, but Faris clearly just enjoyed that way of life. A friendship between them likely wouldn’t work out, since Yuna wasn’t sure if she could overlook what he was doing.
And yet...Yuna couldn’t help but stare at him as he described the sea that he’d like to take her on. He painted a beautiful picture of the water in a way that she’d never seen before. The beaches around Besaid were breath-taking of course, but there had always been that tinge of dread when she’d looked at them. As a summoner, she’d always known that Sin would be the last thing that she’d see before she died.
“Faris…” Yuna knew that her cheeks were red from his descriptions. It sounded almost like a date. True, this was technically a date as well, but what he’d described sounded far more personal. Probably dangerous too among pirates, but she did have to laugh at his reassurance that he’d throw anyone in the brig who bothered her. “Oh no! I couldn’t ask you to-”
Their second drinks arrived then, though the shot glasses were smaller this time since they only contained a single. Yuna glanced down at it uncertainly before raising the whiskey with a small smile and swallowing it down. It burned less than it had the first time.
Once she had caught her breath back, Yuna chanced a glance back up at Faris, already knowing what she was going to say. This was a bad idea. A terrible one, even. But getting attached to Tidus had been a terrible idea too, and Yuna would never regret jumping in head-first after him.
“Do you have a ship here too?” She was sure that the meaning was clear in her eyes.
Caius looked a bit struck at her words, and then he was quiet for a moment as if he were mulling them over. When he finally spoke again, something in Yuna’s chest ached for him.
“Regardless of how I feel, Celes abhors that sort of thing. How I feel would never be reciprocated.”
“Then I guess that's one secret I'm taking to my grave.”
“Caius…” Yuna’s heart went out to her friend, especially with the sad smile he gave her. Her composure finally broke when he touched at his chest looking pained, and Yuna reached across the table to grasp both of his calloused hands in hers.
“You’re a good man,” she said with her own sad smile. “And Celes is beyond lucky to have someone who would put her wants and needs far above their own.” Something in Yuna wanted to protest and tell him that there had to be another way, but he knew Celes better than she did. If the co-founder of the Dragonblades felt that way about romance, then Caius would know that better than anyone. The blonde general was an intimidating woman, and while Yuna wasn’t sure how anyone could ever abhor love in general, perhaps she’d had a bad experience with relationships. It wasn’t really her place to ask. Not unless Celes brought it up first, which Yuna rather hoped that she would. Maybe some girl-time was what Celes needed to address the root of the issue.
Releasing his hands with a final reassuring squeeze, Yuna sat back in her chair, a little embarrassed at the faint burning sensation behind her eyes. It wasn’t her problem, after all, but she still felt so bad for her friend. Maybe it was how sad he’d looked once he’d finally taken everything in.
“I’m sorry. I really ruined the mood, didn’t I?” She asked with a faint smile.
Faris explained with a low grin that he didn’t mind if everything was coming out in the open pretty fast on this date, and Yuna felt her cheeks grow a little hotter as she glanced down at the empty shot glass in front of her. Dregs of brown liquid lurked in the corners at the bottom.
“I guess you’re right. If you’re only putting your best foot forward, then you won’t learn much about someone.” You could tell a lot about someone by what made them passionate and by what they’d lose their temper over, and somehow she thought that she and Faris had already shown each other both of those. Maybe it was a good sign that they were both even still sitting here then.
Faris seemed a little hesitant to talk about what he’d been up to on Zephon, which surprised Yuna a little. Most sailors that she knew were relatively happy to talk about the places that they’d been to, as long as you weren’t bothering them while they were working. Eventually, he said that he dabbled a bit as a hired sword, and Yuna laughed when he mentioned Vordun.
“He’s getting huge lately, but he’s still very loyal to Caius. I like Vordun a lot.” She also wasn’t able to resist a smile when he described the mission that he’d done with Caius. “As big as a mountain? Really? I don’t think he ever mentioned that one. I’m glad you both made it out of there.”
Faris’ hesitation came back, and Yuna frowned slightly as he finally gave a full disclosure of what he did for a living. Her frown deepened as he carried on while seeming the opposite of apologetic about it--he explained that he had two other people to take care of and that he needed the money before leaning back and crossing his arms. Yuna had been quiet throughout--she only spoke once he looked like he was finished saying his piece.
“I’ve never heard the word pirate before, to be honest, but I think I take your meaning.” She was silent for a moment, weighing the best thing to say. She didn’t expect that he would respond well to a lecture. Most people didn’t, but especially not from a stranger. Maybe pointing out the dangers would be best? Particularly with two people so reliant on Faris and his income. They would be in a tough spot if anything happened to Faris.
“But why steal from ships? Why not on land?” A moment after the words left her lips, Yuna could have groaned from the phrasing. That double drink really had made her less eloquent than usual. “I just meant-...The oceans are dangerous,” she sputtered in an attempt to rephrase and not make it sound like she condoned thievery. “There must be an easier way to earn money. I’m sure the two people you mentioned wouldn’t want you hurt or arrested…”
Maybe that was bordering on lecturing him. Yuna sighed and leaned back in the booth before looking up at Faris again over the candlelight. “I can’t say I approve, but I don’t live your circumstances. And I doubt anything I have to say would make much of a difference anyway if your mind’s made up.” She smiled very faintly as she folded her hands in front of her. “I hope you don’t always have to feel like it’s your only option. That’s all.”
Yuna was a little taken aback by the interest that Kuja was showing in her stories of Spira, but she didn’t necessarily mind. It was refreshing to be able to talk about it again. Her friends were happy to hear the basics of course, but she wouldn’t have dreamed of boring them with all the gory details. Kuja, on the other hand, seemed bright with curiosity about every small item that she wouldn’t normally think to mention.
”Are these twisted souls made manifest? Physically, I mean.”
It seemed an odd question, but Yuna still smiled as she glanced over at the lavender-haired man. Perhaps he was picturing something as non-corporeal as the pyreflies. “Unfortunately, yes. So are the fiends that come from normal cases of unsent souls. That’s what makes them so dangerous.”
Kuja went on to ask about how exactly a sending worked, and Yuna laughed a little at the implication that she was psychic. “Oh no, it’s a magic that can be studied and learned like any other,” she reassured him. “It’s traditionally only been taught to apprentice summoners though. Since it’s such a solemn affair.”
Yuna wasn’t able to hold it together when he bemoaned that the sending was a dance, and she pressed one hand to her mouth to contain a laugh. “I think you’d look rather nice performing it. Your clothes seem to flow well,” she said with a smile before taking his question seriously. “That part is mostly a ritual--we think that it shows respect for the dead--but it has some practical purposes to it. I think it helps with concentration and directing the souls, but it can definitely be toned down if you’re in a hurry.” Which was a pity. She’d have liked to do the full sending for every unsent that she came across, but she’d been forced to do little more than some grandiose staff movements at times during her pilgrimage.
Kujs brushed off her insecurities that she must have been boring him by insisting that she continue. His pale eyes were alight with so much curiosity that it was clear he wasn’t just being polite. He genuinely wanted to know all these things.
“You really are a scholar,” Yuna said with a faint smile, glancing forward at the trees that they were stepping past. “Alright. I’ll do my best.”
What else had Kuja requested to know about? Aeons? She could at least begin the topic, though she’d need to explain Sin before long. Right now, Sin was absolutely the shoopuf in the corner of the room.
“To become a full-fledged summoner, you have to form a bond with an aeon. They...used to be humans, but they gave their lives to become what they are now.” It had always been sad to her, but the story seemed somehow more real now that she had met several of the Fayth personally. “Not very many succeed, but if you do manage it, then you have a mental link with that aeon and you can call on them for help going forward. They’re enormously powerful. Of course, their help comes with the price that you’ll try to defeat Sin...”
Yuna hesitated, glancing up at Kuja before deciding to provide only the surface definition. She was sure the scholar would have questions, after all. “Sin is a beast that’s destroyed cities in Spira and murdered its citizens for over a thousand years. The main goal of summoners is to one day destroy it for good.”
If Declan was to be believed, then Yuna had already done that, but her feelings on that particular subject were too complicated to delve into with a stranger.
Yuna was prepared to change the subject when Caius cut in and explained that he genuinely didn’t know what she was talking about. “Oh.” Yuna blinked at him without comprehension for a moment before she finally sat up straighter as realization hit her.
“Oh! Really?” The question popped out before she could censor herself, but she regretted it as Caius sheepishly explained that he’d never really had the chance to experience romantic love before. He’d told her before what life had been like back in his world after Ardyn had spread the starscourge, so she mentally berated herself for not remembering that he’d mostly lived alone in a ruined world. Of course there were some societal things that had never been explained to him. That was only to be expected, so she shook her head earnestly when he started apologizing.
“No, don’t worry about it. I’m only sorry for the misunderstanding.” She gave him a slight smile in her own apology. “It’s not stupid at all. Especially if you never grew up with fairy tales of finding true love, or the like. I think those are pretty common in kids' stories.” And unrealistic, but she wasn’t going to spend time criticizing stories meant for children. They were beautiful anyway, at least in their own right.
“You’re right, there’s a lot of different kinds of love. Familial--like you mentioned--and what you feel towards your friends. Then there’s romantic love.” Yuna’s cheeks reddened slightly as she wondered how best to explain this. She was far from an expert, as her only experience had been the crush that she’d had on the cheerful blonde teenager she’d picked up as a guardian. Her time with Tidus had been brief, but she would try her best to lay it out.
"It’s really hard to explain honestly. I think it might be a little different for everyone. But it feels like you want to spend everyday with that person. Like they’re the first person you want to see in the morning and the last one you want to talk to before you go to sleep. And you’d do anything to make them happy.”
Yuna wasn’t quite sure where to look as she adjusted her hands in her lap, but she made herself meet Caius’ eyes anyway. “That’s why I asked. Just from a few things you said. But there’s no real rush to decide if you do or not. Relationships can really change when you tell someone you love them, so you don't want to do it lightly.”
At least on the inside. On the surface, she and Tidus had pretended for the rest of her guardians that nothing had happened, but she didn’t really want to think about that too hard. Picturing his face was painful, and this wasn’t about them anyway. It was about Caius and Celes.
Yuna thought that Faris seemed a bit taken aback by her telling him off initially, though he took a reconciliatory tone after a moment or two. She could tell that the sailor would have liked to have interjected with a comment, but for the most part he let her protests proceed uninterrupted, and Yuna was too far into it to stop now anyway.
Her blood still rang hot when she finished her defense of Caius, and the whiskey only served to make her heart pump even faster. Everything that she had just done had been so brash and so opposite of what a summoner should be that Yuna was honestly surprised when Faris started laughing. Wasn’t he offended? His good-natured grin told her otherwise.
Yuna felt her cheeks grow a little hot when he ordered them another round of singles, but she didn’t protest him cutting back for her sake. He was being far more responsible than she was after all, and her expression finally softened when he offered up an apology.
“...Thank you. You’re not entirely wrong about him, but I do still think you must have gotten off on the wrong foot.” Still, Faris’ point that men like that ended up with blood on their hands made Yuna wince and glance to the side, her mind on when Caius had shot Darlene at point-blank range. Had the woman deserved it? Most likely--she had been a slave dealer after all, and she had meant to kill both of them and Vordun. But the memory still stung, and she thought that it would for a long time yet.
“Starting over,” Yuna readily agreed, grateful for the distraction as she gave Faris a small smile. His apology had been sincere after all, and the alcohol warmly swirling its way through her veins certainly helped. “Hopefully my healing doesn’t have too much of a punch when someone needs it,” she contradicted him with a laugh. “I’m sorry. That was a lot of sides to see of each other for a first date, wasn't it? Not that I would really know what's normal for that, I suppose.”
Could anything that she and Tidus had done have qualified as a date? Somehow she didn’t think so.
“What about you? What do you do now that we’re stuck here? Certainly not mercenary work I'm guessing.” Yuna found herself hoping that Faris’ answer wouldn’t be as polarizing as hers had been apparently.
Yuna blinked slightly, looking across the table at her friend as she tried to judge where she had left any room for confusion. She thought that her question had been fairly straightforward--maybe a little blunt even, though she had tried to soften it. The only thing that she could think of was that Caius was trying to dodge the question. Maybe he was offended that she had asked such a personal question? That hadn’t been Yuna’s intention--she had thought that the conversation had led to this point pretty naturally, but she’d back off if this wasn’t a topic that Caius was ready to think about.
“I’m sorry. It’s just...I have someone like that. Back on Spira.” Yuna glanced down at the table, feeling her cheeks grow a bit hot since she had never really admitted this out loud to someone else before. Only in the small glances that she’d thrown his way when she’d thought that no one was watching. “One of my guardians. He never did anything that was expected of him, and he was always so full of laughter...I wished that I never had to be apart from him.”
A stupid wish. She’d been destined to die at Sin’s hands, and he’d wanted so badly to return to his Zanarkand. Yuna only wished that she knew what had become of Tidus after she’d been transported to Zephon. If she truly had defeated Sin, then what had Tidus decided to do afterward? What had any of her guardians decided to do?
“You don’t have to answer that,” Yuna finally said with a small smile as she looked back up at Caius. “Not to me at least. I just wanted you to think about it, but it was personal. My apologies.”
