Welcome to Adventu, your final fantasy rp haven. adventu focuses on both canon and original characters from different worlds and timelines that have all been pulled to the world of zephon: a familiar final fantasy-styled land where all adventurers will fight, explore, and make new personal connections.
at adventu, we believe that colorful story and plots far outweigh the need for a battle system. rp should be about the writing, the fun, and the creativity. you will see that the only system on our site is the encouragement to create amazing adventures with other members. welcome to adventu... how will you arrive?
year 5, quarter 3
Welcome one and all to our beautiful new skin! This marks the visual era of Adventu 4.0, our 4th and by far best design we've had. 3.0 suited our needs for a very long time, but as things are evolving around the site (and all for the better thanks to all of you), it was time for a new, sleek change. The Resource Site celebrity Pharaoh Leep was the amazing mastermind behind this with minor collaborations from your resident moogle. It's one-of-a-kind and suited specifically for Adventu. Click the image for a super easy new skin guide for a visual tour!
Final Fantasy Adventu is a roleplaying forum inspired by the Final Fantasy series. Images on the site are edited by KUPO of FF:A with all source material belonging to their respective artists (i.e. Square Enix, Pixiv Fantasia, etc). The board lyrics are from the Final Fantasy song "Otherworld" composed by Nobuo Uematsu and arranged by The Black Mages II.
The current skin was made by Pharaoh Leap of Pixel Perfect. Outside of that, individual posts and characters belong to their creators, and we claim no ownership to what which is not ours. Thank you for stopping by.
Yuna bit her lip as Darlene mocked her, raising her chin slightly as the bandits’ laughter echoed down the hallway. She resented being called a child, though she supposed it was technically true that she had yet to hit her eighteenth birthday. Still, she refused to be condescended to by someone who cared so little for other people’s lives. She had hoped that Darlene could be reasoned with, but that didn’t appear to be the case.
Caius responded to the bandit leader’s words in an almost bored tone, and Yuna wondered if she should take a page from his book. They were cruel people, and if they showed too much weakness in front of them, it would likely just encourage them. Darlene responded to Caius by listing out all the ways that Caius had crossed them, and even Yuna had to give him a startled look at the length of the list. She hadn’t realized the extent of his dealings with the Original Sin, and she was taken off guard again when the bulky woman shot her a vicious glare.
“Witch?” Yuna echoed her insult while frowning at her a little indignantly. Shiva was hardly a beast, and to call her one was to spit on the sacrifices that the fayth had made, but Yuna thought that any lectures would be lost on this group, so she bit her tongue and kept quiet. At least until Darlene outlined her plans for them.
“You would even betray your clients? I feel bad for you. You have no loyalty to anything but your money.” Despite her words, Yuna’s hands shook slightly behind her back where she held the hidden dagger. Being put up on an auction block and having strangers put a price on her sounded more terrifying than whatever death the boss had planned for them. Still, she refused to show them that she was afraid, though a slight gasp left her lips when they threatened Vordun. Her eyes flickered to Caius’s worried expression, and she pressed up against the bars to see better as the group approached the dragon on the way out.
Yuna flinched backwards as Darlene cut Vordun’s throat. Dragon scales were hard enough that they likely protected him from a lethal wound, but a great deal of dark blood started pouring down his chin anyway as she kicked the dragon to the floor. Yuna didn’t know what was harder to hear--Caius’ pleas for her to stop or the whimpers that left Vordun’s lips as the bandits finally left them alone. “Caius…” Yuna murmured, looking over at her friend in worry. Caius had lowered his head to the floor, and his long blond hair covered most of his face, so Yuna could only catch the brief glint of a tear as it dripped to the floor. Her heart ached for him, and she glanced away to give him some privacy, so she was surprised to find him suddenly standing at the bars of his cell as he blasted the wooden parts open with a fire spell.
Yuna shrank back as the heat from the spell wafted down the hallway, and she renewed her grip on the dagger as she started hacking away at the bindings on her wrists. Her movements with the weapon were clumsy since she wasn’t used to handling it, so she winced as she managed to slice through the rope while taking a small chunk of her wrist with it. It was nothing that wouldn’t heal at least, and she started to feel along her collar for the clasp as Caius ripped off her cell door with an astonishing amount of strength.
“I have it. You can go to him,” she reassured him briefly as she finally managed to remove the collar, letting out a breath of relief as she felt the warmth from her magic slowly wash over her again. Collecting her dagger, Yuna left her cell and looked on a little sadly as Caius freed Vordun from his bindings. She had been prepared to heal him, but Caius seemed to have taken care of the immediate wound, so Yuna let them have their space for now. She’d offer to look over the dragon more thoroughly when they were out of here.
The sound of people approaching came from behind the door, and there was really nowhere to hide in the cell block. This was going to turn into a brawl, so Yuna cast a quick Protect spell on all three of them, since the bandits seemed to rely primarily on physical attacks. Her magic came to her a bit more sluggishly than normal, though the effect was lessened when Yuna used her new dagger to direct the flow.
“My magic will be less potent without my staff,” Yuna warned Caius as they readied themselves near the doors. “I think what Celes bought me will help, but I might have to rely on you more until we find it.”
The doors burst open at that, and with a flourish of her dagger, Yuna cast a Watera spell down the tunnel to sweep them backwards before diving out of the way to give Caius room to operate with his weapons. They seemed to have the slight advantage of surprise towards the men at the front of the line, though that quickly changed as the group at the back realized what was happening and sent a mass in to stop them. Yuna didn’t dare summon in such a confined space, so she stuck to supporting Caius as she carefully sent a few offensive black magic spells past him and bolstered the Protect spells that she’d cast earlier whenever one of them took a harsh blow.
Eventually, the fight descended into chaos as a few of the bandits made it further down the tunnel, and Yuna did her best to knock down anyone who approached her with a rapid succession of Thunder spells. One burly man managed to make it past her defenses and shatter her Protect spell with a bullet from his gun, and Yuna gasped as she fell backwards and he leaned forward while raising his gun for a second shot. In her blind panic, she thrust her arms forward with her blade, and her eyes widened a fraction in horror when she felt the dagger pierce something hard. Warm blood touched her hands as it gushed out over the hilt, and the man groaned as he fell backwards with both hands clutched over his abdomen. Complete horror over what she’d done washed over her, and Yuna dropped the dagger and fell to her knees beside the man as she hurriedly cast Cura on him. The sight of so much blood sickened her, and she pressed one hand to her mouth as she looked down at him.
Murderer.
The scene changed in front of her eyes. A taller man was suddenly in the bandit’s place--blue hair and temple robes spread out around his body as she had gently reached forward to close his eyes.
Maester Seymour. I killed him.
Yuna recoiled backwards from the man, her heartbeat pounding in her ears as the scene around her returned back to normal. The bandit wasn’t dead. Just injured, and Yuna refrained from looking at him as she snatched up her dagger and hurriedly wiped the blood off on her skirt. “I’m sorry,” she murmured, before going to rejoin Caius in the fray.
“We need to find that room with the stage!” She called to her friend. “We have to save them.” She refrained from dwelling on what she had just remembered from her past.
Maester Seymour. Why would I have harmed such a good man?
Touching a hand to the side of her head with a wince, Yuna cast a quick Fire spell in a line across the tunnel to separate them from the remaining bandits."Let's go!"
Ardyn cast her an uninterested glance from the side before he finally turned to face her, seeming a little surprised as recognition flooded his gaze. She found it a little hard to breathe under the scrutiny of those yellow eyes, and his chuckle made something like panic rise up in her stomach. It was almost a relief when his expression soured as soon as she mentioned Aera.
“I chose not to make her acquaintance.”
Yuna frowned a little at the phrasing. Make her acquaintance? If Aera was to be believed, then they were far closer than that. Ardyn was her fiancé. Why wouldn’t he wish to see her? Still, Yuna had no desire to voice the question in fear of provoking his temper. Everyone in this bar was in danger, whether they knew it or not. She had to tread the line carefully for their sakes.
Ardyn pointed out that Aera had left without her too in such a nonchalant way that Yuna couldn’t decide if it was meant to be cruel or not. “She has little need for your protection.” Was that why Aera had left in such a final way? As little as Yuna trusted Ardyn, surely he’d know his fiancée’s personality best. Perhaps Yuna had been acting too much like a guardian when what the blonde woman had really needed was a friend. Yuna felt a little low at the realization. She of all people should have understood how that felt, and yet she’d made the same mistake that all her guardians except for Tidus often had. She only hoped that she’d get the chance to make it up to Aera one day.
“She wanted to find you,” Yuna felt compelled to say. “I brought her here because she wouldn’t take no for an answer.” Even the unsent had their weak spots. Judging from how quickly his expression had changed at the blonde woman’s name, Yuna was guessing that Aera was his. Still, it didn’t change what she had to do here.
Just as quickly as his mood had shifted, he once again became the jovial man that she’d met in a hospital hallway. He gestured for the bartender to bring over another glass of wine while he shot her a smile that made her skin crawl. “I insist.”
“What?” Yuna felt her cheeks grow a little hot as her eyes darted between him and the wine and the bar around them, as if someone would come to her rescue. “Why would you want-?...I’ve never-…” She forced herself to stop talking as her initial embarrassment faded and she realized that he was likely just needling her. The entire situation was so uncomfortable that she wanted to turn and run from the building, but she had the feeling that showing weakness in front of him would be like wading out into the ocean while Sin was approaching. Ardyn wanted to see her squirm. That was all. She couldn’t run, and she couldn’t admit that she’d never had so much as a sip of alcohol before. She was trapped.
Reluctantly, Yuna eased herself down on the stool, hoping that he wouldn’t notice when she dragged it a few inches further away from him first. Her eyes lit on the glass of wine that the bartender had placed in front of her, and it resembled so strongly a glass of dark blood that it looked entirely unappetizing. She made no move to touch it yet.
“…You really only came here to drink?” She asked quietly, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye as she dug her nails into her skirt over her knees. It didn’t change what he’d done. He was still a fiend who needed to be sent before his next attack on the living. But it also felt impossible to attack a man who was just sitting idly next to her. Yuna wouldn’t have been in the wrong for doing so, but it would have felt like she was, and those two things could be impossible to separate sometimes.
“This doesn’t change what happened. Or that you’re an unsent,” Yuna reiterated aloud as she finally turned to face him fully. He was so much taller than her and had such a voluminous collection of clothes that it was almost hard to see the doorway past him. “But since I already learned your name. I’m Yuna.” Purely on instinct, she very nearly bowed when introducing herself, but she managed to stop herself at the last second. She wasn't comfortable with turning her back to him in any way. “I remember what you called me,” she continued softly. “And I can tell you now that I’m no Oracle.”
Yuna had to swallow a gasp when the bandits snapped a thick collar around her neck after they’d done the same thing to Caius. The material was rough against her skin, and she instantly felt disconnected from her magic in a way that frightened her. She’d experienced something like this before—the Al-Bhed had used an anti-magic field on her and her guardians before she had entered Macalania Temple, but she had at least been with a large group then. With her and Caius already bound, Yuna felt much more vulnerable this time, and she gave Caius an uneasy glance as she wondered if surrendering had been the right thing to do. Even if they found the little girl now, it would be difficult to rescue her without their weapons or magic.
The two were dragged underground, and it quickly became apparent why the base had seemed so small. Most of the compound was actually underground in a sprawling mass of tunnels. Yuna tried to keep track of the directions that they took. Right. Left. Left again. But all other thoughts froze in her mind as they were dragged through what appeared to be a small auditorium. The people on the low stage were bound in the same way that she and Caius were, and Yuna’s eyes flickered between them and the bandits in horror when she realized that people were making offers for them. She desperately hoped that she had misunderstood the situation, but judging from the disgusted look that Caius had, he’d come to the same conclusion that she had. The bandits were selling people.
Turning her face away, Yuna bit her lip and vowed that they’d have to rescue everyone as they were pulled out of the room and deeper underground. The row of cell blocks that they were taken to were fairly dark and damp, and she stumbled a bit as she was shoved into a cell and the door was locked behind her. Caius was put into the cell diagonal from hers, and while she couldn’t see Vordun anymore, she assumed that he was down at the end judging by the clanging sound of chains followed by a dragon’s growl. Before they left, two of the bandits taunted them, and Yuna frowned as they were once again referred to as bounty targets. Did that mean that the group was after both of them?
As their footsteps faded down the hallway, Yuna despondently took a seat on her knees, her bound hands still clasped behind her. When she sat in a specific corner, she was able to see into Caius’ cell, so she looked over at him as he went on to explain what their group name ‘The Original Sin’ meant in this world.
“Then they’re proud of committing atrocities,” she said slowly. That was wrenching to hear, but she couldn’t say that she was surprised after what they had just witnessed above them. She also wasn’t surprised to hear Caius say that the bandits likely had a bounty out on both of them, though she couldn’t have said what that meant for them. Were they planning to kill them both once they had been handed over?
“That’s what happens in this world. Good deeds or bad… You will make enemies.”
Yuna considered her knees for a moment as silence fell over the cell block. “I don’t mind being their enemies much if this is what they’re doing,” she murmured before shifting how she was sitting. Her arm bumped against something near her waist, and she froze as the realization that she was still armed came to her. The dagger that Celes had bought her. The blonde woman had gone out of her way to make Yuna comfortable by buying her a blade that was more jewelry than weapon, so the bandits must have taken the jeweled carvings above her sash to be part of her elaborate outfit rather than the hilt of a dagger. She wanted to shout the news over to Caius, but she knew better than to think that there wouldn’t be a guard close by. She needed to keep this quiet for now.
Using her elbows, Yuna went about the painstaking process of shifting her sash enough to extract the dagger with her bound hands. It was a painful process, and by the time she’d managed to grasp the hilt with the tips of her fingers and extract it from the thin leather sheathe beneath her sash, the door at the far-end of the hallway opened with a creak. Freezing, Yuna scooted her back to the wall and rearranged herself, hoping that the dagger wouldn’t be seen from underneath her billowing sleeves. She hadn’t even started to hack away at her ropes yet. If she was found out now, then they were done before they started.
Footsteps echoed down the hallway before a few bandits emerged into her line of sight. At the front was a muscular woman with her hair tied back. Caius visibly stiffened at the sight of her before a bitter, resigned smirk crossed his face.
“Nice of you to come and help us find your daughter… Isn’t it, Darlene?”
“Darlene?” Yuna echoed, feeling the bottom drop out of her stomach as she stared between the two of them. “Then…this was a trap?” They had really put out a fake job just to capture them? The thought made her feel sick. Would any of the other Dragonblades get caught up in this? Would Celes?
“Please,” Yuna addressed Darlene directly, though she didn’t have much hope that it would work. “You have to know that this is wrong. If you condemned kidnapping in your fake request, then you’re self-aware about it. You don’t have to do this.” Naïve perhaps, but Yuna at least wanted to try. At this point, she was questioning if she and Caius would be killed or put up for auction.
Yuna didn’t normally stray out so late at night, but she had been in so much turmoil after she had woken up to find Aera missing along with a chunk of her money that she had needed the air. That had been hours ago. She wasn’t even sure what time it was anymore.
Yuna pressed a hand to her mouth, hot tears pricking at the corners of her eyes as she wondered what she’d done to lose her trust. She’d immediately suspected that the blonde woman had managed to find Ardyn, but maybe she should have pressed her harder for answers. If she’d run off with him, then Yuna doubted that she’d ever see her again. She was gone, and Yuna had accomplished nothing here except to lose even more of Caius’ money. She felt so stupid. She should never have told Aera to come to Provo. She should never have ignored Caius’ advice to stay away. How was she even supposed to face the rest of the Dragonblades after this? She couldn’t go back to Torensten like this. She felt like more of mess than she had in a long time.
Her feet ached from walking, but she continued taking aimless directions until the street lamps were all that lit her path, and strange men called things to her that made her raise her chin and quickly hurry on. She wasn’t in a very nice section of Provo anymore, but that was what she wanted. She refused to go back to the room that she’d shared with Aera yet. She needed more time.
It was the flash of red under the lamplight ahead of her that made her gasp and pull out of her self-misery.
Clapping a hand over her mouth, Yuna drew back into the shadows as she stared at the man down the street who was considering the sign on a building. Ardyn. There was no mistaking his mismatched collection of clothing or his wild red hair even from this distance. Her heartbeat picked up until she was afraid that he might be able to hear it from down the street, but he didn’t so much as glance her way as he opened the door and slipped inside, his coat trailing out behind him.
As soon as the door clicked shut behind him, Yuna let out a sharp breath and wrapped her arms around herself. What should she do? She hadn’t even brought her staff with her. She’d left it back in the room, so while she always had her magic and Shiva, it would be weaker than normal if she tried to channel it against him. The only thing that she had on her was the dagger that Celes had bought her back in Torensten, and she didn’t fool herself into thinking that she could do anything with it but blindly thrust it forward. That was if she could even bring herself to try to stab him at all. Going after him now would be insanity.
And yet…what was he doing in a public space so late at night? A trickle of fear shot through Yuna, and she was walking down the street before she could talk herself out of it. If he was here looking for more victims, then she had a duty to stop him no matter how unprepared she was. She stopped only briefly to consider the building—a small, dimly-lit place with a crowd of people inside—before she pushed open the thick door and stepped inside.
A sour smell hit her like she had stepped into a cloud, and Yuna stopped just inside the door as she scanned the people clutching glasses of clear or amber liquid. Oh. This was some kind of speakeasy. She had never been in one before, but she didn’t have the time to feel uncomfortable as her eyes lit on the colorful man seated at the bar.
Ardyn sat with his back to her, and as she watched, he raised a drink to his lips that was a deeper shade of red than his hair. He stood out in a place like this, but he was still just doing the same thing as everyone else. Had he really just come here to drink alcohol? Yuna suddenly felt foolish and exposed, the suffocating atmosphere closing in on her further as a man called over to her and offered to buy her a drink. She wanted to run. She wanted to flee before he ever noticed her, but she couldn’t. As a summoner, she would never have that luxury. She had to confront things head-on.
Letting out a slow breath, Yuna did her best to center herself before approaching the bar. She didn’t take her eyes off of the red-haired man until she stopped with only a bar stool in between them.
“…Ardyn.” They had never introduced themselves during their first encounter, but she had confirmed his name with so many people at this point. “I thought that you might have left when Aera did.”
Celes said that she would let Yuna know if there was anything that she could do for her, and then the blonde woman dug through her pouch to come up with the gil. Yuna caught the faint frown that crossed the general’s face, and guilt stabbed at her as she glanced down at the dagger. It was too expensive. She knew that. She’d have to do her best to make it up to Celes for this. And maybe Caius as well, if this was coming out of the Dragonblade’s funds.
“Thank you,” she murmured again, as they completed the transaction and stepped away from the market stall. Yuna placed the dagger in the small leather sheathe that it had come with before considering where to store it. After only a moment of hesitation, she stowed it away in her sash so that only the hilt was exposed. And even then, her billowing sleeves mostly covered the area as long as her arms were lowered. “How do I look?” She asked with a smile to show that she was mostly joking.
Her smile faded as Celes dropped a very pointed request that showed that she hadn’t bought a single word of Yuna’s nonchalance earlier. “That’s something you can do for me. Don’t waste the gil.”
“…I won’t waste it.” Yuna gave Celes an earnest look as she clasped her hands in front of her. The last thing that she had intended was for Celes to worry, after all. “Why don’t we set a date to teach each other? Three weeks from today I’ll be back in Torensten, whether or not I’m finished in Provo.” That seemed reasonable, and it was honestly a relief for her to set a limit anyway. Either she wouldn’t be able to find Ardyn again, and Aera would be disappointed, or she’d die trying to send him. But either way, everything would be over in three weeks.
Yuna was honestly thrown when Celes offered to come to Provo with her. She knew that she was a terrible liar, but did she really seem so scared? It must have been in her facial expression somewhere. Hesitating, Yuna seriously considered the blonde woman’s offer. It would have been good to have a physical fighter along since Yuna relied soley on magic and her aeons, and Aera was much the same. Not to mention that Aera was unable to walk well, so if things went badly with Ardyn, they wouldn’t be able to run very quckly. It would have been wise to take a third fighter.
But Yuna wasn’t ignoring Caius’ orders to avoid Ardyn because it was wise. She was doing it because of the tears that had filled Aera’s eyes when she had spoken about the good man that her fiancé had been. She was doing it because she knew that she’d see cloying monsters and yellow eyes every night until she confronted him again. But mostly, she was doing it because she was the only summoner in the vicinity who could send him, and it was her duty to try. Yuna didn’t fear death. Truthfully, she had never really expected to reach her 18th birthday once she had become a summoner, so she wasn’t afraid to try something insurmountable. She just refused to drag anyone else down with her and Aera.
“I wouldn’t want to impose. I’m used to traveling on dangerous roads from my old world,” Yuna reassured Celes with a smile. “Anyway, I won’t be alone. I met a woman at the Crystallus Divider that I’ll be going to Provo with.” She wasn’t sure yet how potent Aera would be in a fight, but if Ardyn had called her an oracle, then Aera must have had powers similar to hers. Yuna hoped that would be enough between them.
“Until three weeks then?” Yuna smiled at Celes, hoping that she’d assuaged her fears.
Yuna blinked slowly at Caius when he gently pointed out that the bandits had likely never heard of Sin before. “…Oh.” Feeling a little foolish by her outburst, she gave Caius a sheepish glance. “Does that word have another meaning here?” Perhaps it had once in Spira as well, but she didn’t think that anybody had said the word Sin in at least a thousand years without meaning the fearsome monster.
As Yuna considered the fenced-in hideout, Caius mulled over her idea that they could disguise themselves before pointing out that they were respectively too big and too small to play the role. “That’s true. I suppose I’d be tripping over my uniform and you’d be bursting out of it,” she said with a slight smile. Caius was much taller than average, and she hadn’t spotted too many women among the bandits’ ranks yet. Unfortunately they might stick out even if they were trying to blend in.
As Yuna debated the best way for them to sneak in, a man suddenly popped over the side of the underbrush. Jolting in surprise, Yuna raised her staff with a gasp while Caius immediately got his gunblade to the man’s head. The man suggested that they surrender with a snide grin on his face, which was bold of him while he was facing down two people and a dragon. But the reason for his confidence suddenly became clear as more and more of the bandits started to climb up the hill in every direction around them. Yuna glanced around desperately for an opening, but they seemed to have planned this. Her heart sank as she realized that they must have been spotted while they were flying in. Maybe they had descended too close.
“Drop your weapons, and calm your stupid beast.” Vordun didn’t seem pleased to have weapons pointed at him as he roared in anger, and Yuna’s mind raced with other possibilities. She could try to summon Shiva for aid, but that could hurt Caius and Vordun too on such a small hilltop. She couldn’t risk it, but nothing else that she could do would save them against such a large crowd. While Yuna was paralyzed with indecision, Caius let out a small sigh as he dropped both his weapons and raised his hands in surrender. Yuna gave him a surprised look as the bandits jeered, but in the end, she decided that it was the correct decision. More likely than not, the bandits would take them to the same group of cages where the little girl was being kept, and they might be able to make a move to rescue her from there. Caius was nearly impossible to truly disarm after all since his weapons came from the ether, and Yuna didn’t really need her staff to cast magic. Though it certainly helped her to enhance it.
Swallowing slightly, Yuna knelt to lay her staff on the ground before raising her hands in a mirror of Caius. The bandits laughed in response when they had their surrender, and a few of them stepped forward to tie their hands behind their backs. Yuna winced slightly at the rough rope—the man who was securing her seemed to have a hard time finding her wrists underneath her billowing sleeves—and she glanced away while the men debated what to do about Vordun and pestered Caius to get the dragon to stand down. Technically, she supposed that she did still have the dagger that Celes had bought for her hidden under her sash. She had zero confidence in her ability to use it yet, and the bandits were likely to find it anyway if they patted her down. But the weight of the silver dagger with its sapphire stones was still comforting to her as the bandits started to drag them off the hill.
One of the men near the front glanced between both of their faces before whistling under his breath. “Well I’ll be damned. We’ll make out well if we hand these two over,” he said with a slight laugh, and Yuna gave him a concerned glance as she tried to figure out what that was supposed to mean. "...What?" Did he recognize them? How? She didn’t believe that he was one of the people from her first mission with Caius, but it was possible that she just hadn’t gotten a good look at him before.
As they entered the bandits’ camp, Yuna let out a slow breath as the fence closed behind them with a slow, ominous creak. There was no turning back now, and she glanced over to see how Caius was doing. Hopefully they had made the right choice.
Celes seemed a little hesitant when Yuna asked her for her opinion, but after a moment, she tilted her head and started to look over the weapons with a practiced eye. As she walked towards the back of the stall, Yuna followed her closely. For some reason, she felt nervous about being in the shop alone, and she smiled a little uncomfortably at the shopkeeper as Celes picked up one to examine it.
“What do you think?” Yuna had been so preoccupied with her own unease that it took her a moment to realize that Celes was holding a dagger out to her. Yuna grasped the hilt on instinct and took it from her. The blade was heavier than she had expected, so her hand dipped slightly before she brought it up to examine it. For an instrument designed to hurt people, the dagger was somehow pretty. Yuna looked it over in surprise, eyes drifting between the sharp point at the end, the carvings on the blade, and the sapphire stones that dotted the hilt. She could tell that the dagger had some kind of magical enhancement—it gave off a warm feeling, and just holding it made her feel like she could cast more spells than normal. The way that the blue gems sparkled in the light was reminiscent of moving water, and it reminded her of the blue sword that Wakka had let her newest guardian use. They were the same shade of blue as Tidus’ eyes. The thought made her heart flutter.
“Yes,” she said, looking up at Celes with a smile, though she flushed slightly when the blonde woman said it was pretty. “This is the one.” Still, Yuna’s face fell a bit when Celes asked for the price and she heard the answer. Yuna had no problems with money—she did enough jobs that she usually always had enough for food and a place to stay—but there was no way that she could afford something like this.
“Are you sure?” She asked Celes, her eyes widening slightly when the woman told her not worry about the money. “I-…I shouldn’t-…” She paused slightly as she tried to get her thoughts in order. It would be selfish to get this one when there were so many cheaper ones for sale. She knew that. The priests would shake their heads at her if they knew that she was putting her own wants above what was practical. But then, they would likely be appalled anyway to know that a summoner was putting aside a staff for a blade in order to defend against other people when she had to. She would be the scandal of Spira. The thought made a laugh bubble up in her throat before she raised a hand to her mouth, slightly mortified at herself. What was wrong with her lately?
Celes lightened the mood by joking that the purchase would be on Caius, and Yuna giggled a bit at that, glancing at the woman warmly. “Something like that. He thinks very highly of you.”
And she could see why.
Relenting, Yuna clasped her hands in front of her and gave Celes a deep bow. “Thank you,” she murmured with her face towards the ground and her hair in her face. Rising back up, she gave Celes a genuine smile. “You’ve been so helpful. I think this was exactly what I needed.” She hesitated, but as an afterthought, she looked at the tough woman resolutely. “Please. Let me know if there’s ever anything I can do for you.”
The flight felt like it went by quickly compared to how much ground they had to cover, but then Yuna was used to traveling on foot or by chocobo. She had little frame of reference for what travel times generally were when someone was flying instead. Or she assumed that she didn’t have that knowledge at any rate--she wasn’t ready to consider too closely what that earlier flash of being on an airship might have meant.
As Vordun landed atop a cliff, Yuna clung tightly to Caius until the descent was finished. Afterward, she started to climb off the dragon but was stopped by the saddle supports still on her legs. Flushing red a bit, Yuna undid the buckles as quickly as she could manage before joining Caius near the edge of the cliff. They could see the bandits’ camp from here. It was a sprawling, spacious set of land that was fenced in with a few guards strolling about. Something seemed wrong about the sight, but Yuna couldn’t pinpoint the problem until Caius voiced aloud that there weren’t any cages.
“You’re right,” she said with a frown. “It’s different than last time. They weren’t hard to find then. The cages were right in the open.” Yuna had thought that the outfits that the bandits were wearing looked similar to the ones from her first mission with Caius, and it seemed that she was correct when her friend identified them as the Original Sin.
“That’s what they call themselves?” Yuna asked incredulously, a note of outrage leaking into her voice as she stared down at the camp. “That’s in such poor taste! Sin has killed thousands since it was first born into the world.” The arrogance of this group to compare themselves to Sin. Yuna didn’t often get angry, but between their kidnapping and slave-trading and now this, she felt something heated in her stomach as she looked down at the camp.
She calmed down a little when Caius lightened the air by joking about the bounty on his head. “Really? How much do they think you’re worth?” She gave him a slightly teasing smile before sobering up as they talked strategy.
“No, I agree. We should at least look around or see what the people here know. Though I don’t imagine they’d be happy to talk to us.” She didn’t feel good about threatening people either, so they might not learn too much by talking. Still, infiltrating the camp was worth a shot when the lives of a six-year old girl and countless others could be on the line.
“Maybe we can sneak in? There aren’t many places to hide, but if we could acquire outfits like theirs…”
She wasn’t opposed to charging in either since there weren’t many bandits around, but she agreed with Caius that the camp set-up was fishy. They should at least tread a little carefully.
Kana-Ei had been fighting tears after she had spoken of Baaj. He kept his head down, but Yuna was certain of it. Feeling horrible, she pressed one hand to her chest and glanced away, wishing that something she could say would make him feel better. Still, she couldn’t imagine how she would have felt if she had heard that Besaid had been destroyed by Sin. It would have been unthinkable and overwhelming. She would have absolutely needed a moment to herself, so she stayed quiet to give him the time that he needed. Hopefully she could clarify things with him soon.
As the discussion turned to Ardyn, Yuna was overwhelmed at Aera’s passionate description of the Ardyn that she knew. Yuna sucked in a breath as Aera admitted that he had been her fiancée, and she pressed one hand to her mouth in thought. That certainly complicated things, and it was a little heartbreaking to picture what awaited the soft-spoken woman in Provo. Still, it didn’t necessarily have to disagree with her account of things, and Yuna reluctantly voiced her thoughts on the topic. “…I believe you. That he was a good man. But…the Ardyn that I met appeared to be a very old unsent. That can change even the purest of souls.”
Yuna tried to balance honesty with keeping some of Aera’s hopes alive, but she wasn’t sure how well she had succeeded. She lowered her head slightly as Kana-Ei detailed his encounter with the red-haired man. “He was looking for someone?” She asked cautiously, before frowning slightly at the timing of Ardyn vanishing and someone contracting the plague shortly afterward. All of them should have seen the connection, so Yuna didn’t try to point it out. Instead, she hesitated slightly as she mulled over Kana-Ei’s comment that perhaps they had all met a different Ardyn.
“It’s possible,” she said, but she wasn’t too sure that was the case. Particularly with her and Kana-Ei, since both of their experiences with him had been inside hospitals in Provo. “I suppose there’s only one way to find out.” Yuna clasped her hands in her lap as she looked between the two of them. “I was planning to return to Provo after this anyway. They have a desperate need of healers for the plague. Would you mind if I accompanied you on your journey, Aera? I worry for your safety if you’re seeking out the man that I met. He’s as strong as Shiva—if not stronger than her.”
She didn’t want to speak for Kana-Ei, but she was hoping he would offer as well. He was the first person from Spira that she’d met here, and she didn’t want to let that go after such a brief initial conversation. Anyway, he was likely a great healer if he was also a summoner. Provo could certainly use his assistance.
Yuna couldn’t blame Caius for calling it a day. He and Vordun had made a lot of progress on the second attempt, but Caius had still ended up a little worse for wear. She was glad that he appeared to be getting his breath back at least. It had scared her half to death when he had started gulping for air since she hadn’t really known what was wrong with him.
“Completely up to you. You definitely have the basics when you want to practice later.” Yuna stepped back to give him some room as Caius stood up to pat Vordun on the head. He instructed the dragon to go rest, and Yuna laughed softly as he lumbered over to curl up on a rock.
“You know, his teeth and claws are getting pretty scary. I’m glad he still acts like he used to around you,” she said with a smile, clasping her hands together and giving him a slight bow to acknowledge his thanks. “I’m happy to help. Anyway, I had fun. I’ve definitely never watched someone ride a dragon before.” She laughed and shook her head when he teased that it would have been a disaster without her. “No, no. I think you did great for a first try. It’s definitely not easy, and there were things we didn’t plan out in advance like the saddle…”
From nearby, Vordun’s breaths were rising in tiny steam puffs into the air where he had curled up on his rock. The blue coloring of his scales shimmered in the afternoon sunlight, and Yuna decided that she liked how peaceful it was out here. Torensten could still be seen in the distance, but they were far enough away to not hear much noise from the city outside of the wind.
“Why don’t we celebrate?” Yuna turned back to Caius to smile at him. “I’m not leaving Torensten quite yet. Want to grab some dinner?”
