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.
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year 5, quarter 3
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The view at the Crystalus Divider was so breathtaking that for a moment, all Yuna could do was stare up at the glowing gate with her heartbeat pounding in her ears. She’d heard tales of this holy site while she had been in Sonora with Caius and Rem, but seeing it in person was another story entirely. The canyon held the size and majesty of the stadium in Luca with all the solemnity of one of their temples. It was beautiful.
Approaching the gate, Yuna took a moment to appreciate the magic that she felt washing over her. It reminded her of home and of all the time she’d spent training in the quiet halls of the Besaid Temple. The thought filled her with more emotion than she’d expected, and she took a moment to sit on her knees, spreading her skirt around her as she bowed her head in prayer.
Yuna stayed there for a few minutes to pay her respects--While she didn’t know much of this world’s aeons yet, Shiva had saved her life and dozens of others by coming to her aid in the hospital in Provo. That’s why she had taken the long journey here in the first place. She wanted to know more about both of them. The armor-clad ice warrior who was so different than the Shiva that she knew and the yellow-eyed unsent man who was spreading the plague.
After a moment of prayer, Yuna set about introducing herself to her fellow travelers and asking around for information. While many had heard of the sickness in Provo, no one seemed to know anything about a red-haired middle-aged man who might have been the cause of it. However, Shiva seemed to be highly revered here, and an older man was able to helpfully point her towards a group currently listening to a sermon on the topic.
Lingering in the back of the crowd, Yuna drank in the priest’s words, even though they ran contrary to everything that she knew and would have been considered blasphemous back in Yevon’s temples. Anything that helped her to learn more about her savior. Unfortunately, it appeared that this Shiva had originated near Sonora, and Yuna frowned to herself, wondering if she had traveled this far just to turn around and go back. She had just been in Sonora. Could she have learned something else there if she had known where to look?
“That is not Shiva.” Yuna blinked slightly, turning to face a blonde-haired woman in the crowd as the priest looked insulted and sputtered at her. The woman seemed a little abashed, as if she hadn’t meant to say that out loud, before she took a few steps back to remove herself from the conversation.
Intrigued, Yuna broke away from the crowd as well. She meant to approach the regal-looking woman, but a man beat her to it. Yuna smiled faintly and was about to leave them to their conversation, when she suddenly froze, staring at the man in disbelief as he brought his hands together to form a circle and gave the woman a deep bow. He knew the Yevon prayer.
Yuna rushed towards them, walking up just as the man introduced himself as Kana-Ei before taking a seat. “Excuse me,” she interrupted before bringing her hands together and mimicking the same bow that he had done. “Might you...be from Spira?” She asked him slowly, staring almost desperately into his hazel eyes. She had yet to meet anyone else from her world.
After a moment, she flushed a bit red as she realized how completely rude she was being. “I’m so sorry.” Clasping her hands together, she gave a short bow, this time to the woman who had chastised the priest. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. But what I know of Shiva is different than what they say as well.” She gave her a small smile as she took a seat next to Kana-Ei. “I’d be interested in comparing notes with you both. If you don’t mind me joining.”
Yuna hadn’t yet been any further north than Provo, so she jumped at the chance when Caius had extended an invitation to join him in Sonora. It had taken her a few days journey to reach the city gates, and she just hoped that the others weren’t waiting on her. She hadn’t expected the temperature to change so drastically, so she’d had to stop at one point to acquire a coat, and then she mostly went on foot after it had gotten too cold for a chocobo to travel comfortably. But Yuna didn’t mind. Her entire pilgrimage would have been by foot or by boat, and at least it wasn’t nearly as cold here as it was in Mt. Gagazet. This wasn’t so bad.
By the time Yuna had reached the gates of Sonora, she had to press one hand to her mouth as she considered the towering buildings and the lights that made the city look as bright as day. This place was even bigger than Bevelle and Luca were back home. How was it even possible to make buildings so tall? As Yuna cautiously crept down the street in search of Caius, she kept eyeing the structures around her nervously, waiting for an ominous creek to signal that one was about to fall. Surely they had to sometimes, right?
With some relief, Yuna eventually spotted her blond-haired friend standing outside a smaller building along with a brunette girl in a red cape and checkered skirt. She noticed immediately during the introductions that Caius was a bit more curt than usual, and she gave him a concerned glance to see if he was alright, but she didn’t want to pry. Particularly not in front of a stranger. She just hoped that Caius would bring it up when he was ready.
Yuna smiled at Rem as they were introduced to each other. She was a petite girl who looked to be around Yuna’s age. She had a friendly, soft-spoken voice that Yuna liked immediately, and she quickly brought her hands together to give her a bow in the traditional Yevon style. “I’m Yuna. It’s nice to meet you, Rem. How do you two know each other?” She glanced between Caius and Rem as they set off down the street, hoping for a good story as Caius went about procuring them transportation.
Yuna had assumed that Caius had meant chocobos, so her eyes widened a bit when he drove up in a small, sleek vehicle that looked similar to the other ones zooming their way past them in the streets. “We’re going in a piece of machina?” She asked a bit hesitantly, leaning forward to look over the ‘car.’ Yuna had accepted by now that Zephon didn’t operate under the same rules as Spira. There were no laws here against forbidden machina and no Sin in place to punish people for using it. But old habits and beliefs were hard to break, so she still had to bite her tongue a bit as she cautiously eased her way in the backseat to share it with Vordun. If only Lulu and Wakka could see her now. Wouldn’t they be surprised?
“We’re going so fast,” Yuna breathed, sitting forward to stare at the world flashing by outside her window. “Is this 'car' like an airship?”
Caius started to explain that he used to live in a car, and Yuna blinked in surprise as she looked forward at the backs of both of their heads. “Bombs?” Yuna let out a short laugh. “You always have the most interesting stories. Was sleeping in your car dangerous then?”
She once again took a peek out her window, deciding that it was making her less dizzy now that she was getting more used to it. “I’ve never been in anything like this before,” she admitted. “Machina like this is forbidden where I come from…” Glancing forward again, she gave the girl in the passenger seat a faint smile “What about you, Rem?”
Yuna flushed slightly when Caius referred to her as ‘Yuney,’ shooting him a slight smile as her thoughts turned to her Al Bhed side of the family. Rikku had often referred to her by that nickname as well, so she was surprised but pleased to have someone in Zephon start calling her that. It made her feel like she was really starting to form a home here.
Still, finding her place came with its own drawbacks and complications. Yuna knew she shouldn’t get too comfortable. She couldn’t give up on her goal of returning to Spira. They still needed someone to defeat Sin. She doubted that another summoner had managed it in the brief time that she’d been away, and that meant that she could never truly settle down here.
She hadn’t meant for her thoughts to travel in a sad direction, but thankfully Vordun distracted her by returning her greeting. The dragon moved forward to lick her face, and Yuna laughed as she tried to duck away, not quite succeeding as his tongue swiped across her cheek. “I really can’t believe how big he is,” she commented, wiping her cheek off on a long sleeve as she patted his neck. “It doesn’t feel that long ago that he was riding around in your coat. Now his teeth are getting pretty scary,” she joked with a slight smile, glancing at the dragon’s mouth. She felt bad for any animals he came across while hunting now. She doubted that he’d need Caius’ help with a deer anymore, like he had during their first meeting. Time really flew.
Caius seemed to be in good spirits, which didn’t surprise Yuna. Who wouldn’t be excited to learn to fly? She hadn’t tried it often with Valefor, but she’d always loved how the wind felt swirling around her on those rare occasions. “Hm…” Yuna leaned around Vordun to consider the layout of his back when Caius asked her if she had any tips. “Try to always hold on with your hands if you can. It can be hard to grip with just your legs when they’re moving so much.” Impossible really. She suspected that she’d have fallen off at some point were it not for the aeon doing her best to shield Yuna from the elements and to keep her in place. Caius would likely have a much harder time. As intelligent as the dragon was, he still didn’t have quite the same level of awareness as a summon.
“Oh! We should lay something down for you to sit on.” Yuna glanced between the blue-tinted dragon scales and the fabric of Caius’ pants. “His scales will rub. I think your legs will get raw pretty quick if we don’t. If only they made saddles for dragons.” Yuna shot him a slight smile. “Maybe we could get one commissioned for you? I’m sure someone could make one if they just measured…” The idea of asking a leather worker to come into the wilds of Torensten to measure a dragon was pretty funny, and Yuna put a hand in front of her mouth to stifle her laugh as she tried to get serious again.
“Do you want us to try to secure you down? I can try to heal you if you fall, but I don’t really like the idea of you getting hurt in the first place,” she admitted, lightly stroking a hand along Vordun’s scales as she waited to hear Caius’ preferences.
Yuna had come to know the streets of Torensten rather well at this point. It was the first city that she had woken up in after all, and she had grown to love its friendly inhabitants and its loud marketplaces. As important as her work was in Provo with the plague victims, she had been itching for a moment to rest, so she had been happy to receive a message from Caius that he was ready to start trying to ride on Vordun. She couldn’t believe that the dragon was so large already! She was eager to see it with her own eyes, so she packed up and headed back south to Torensten. Yuna was happy to help out a friend, and truth be told, she was more than ready to forget about the yellow-eyed man for a while.
Yuna had stayed overnight at an inn before setting out early to meet Caius on the outskirts of the city. She had her bag slung over one shoulder and her staff gripped in the opposite hand as she carefully walked through the tall grasses outside of Torensten. The morning wind rustled her sleeves and skirt, and she tipped her head back a bit and enjoyed the morning light until she caught sight of the figures waiting for her in the distance.
Yuna felt her lips part slightly in surprise at the sight of Vordun, a laugh escaping her as she approached them. “He’s huge!” She called to Caius, cautiously holding out a hand to the blue-scaled dragon in case he needed to sniff her to remember her. He was starting to approach the size of an actual dragon, and she supposed that she might have been a little nervous if she hadn’t have met him when he was smaller. She had faith in Caius’ ability to train him though. She hadn’t seen Vordun do anything too wild yet.
“How have you been?” She finally asked, shooting Caius a smile. “It should be a beautiful day to go up in the sky.”
He’d probably fall a lot too while they were learning, but she left that part unspoken until they got down to business. Hopefully Caius wouldn’t break anything, but that’s partly why she was here, after all.
Yuna gave Caius a relieved look when he said that they wouldn’t actually be returning the girl to the village unless she wanted to come. “I thought you might say that,” she said with a slight smile. “I agree. We should figure out what she wants to do. She must not be too keen on her future husband…” There was that twinge of familiarity again, but Yuna didn’t have time to ponder it as Bartz responded to her question about how he could talk to chocobos. It seemed his best friend was a chocobo, and Yuna fought a giggle as he talked about Boko.
“Were you raised with Boko?” She couldn’t think of any other way that a human could learn all the intricacies of the warks and kwehs that the birds communicated with. Bartz went on to reflect on his surprise that she was a mercenary, and she laughed softly, shaking her head slightly in agreement. “It’s true, I’m not much of a fighter unless people’s lives are at stake. I mostly take jobs where people need healed. Or where things are dire.” She didn’t think that she’d belong very well in a normal mercenary group, but the Dragonblades took all sorts of jobs and never minded what discounts or free services you gave. Yuna had enjoyed it so far, even though she was still a brand-new member, and she gave Caius a slight smile as she thought about it.
As they set out down the road and started sharing what they were doing outside of Provo, Yuna hesitated slightly when Caius asked about who was responsible for the plague that had hit the city. “He never told me his name,” she admitted. “But he was a tall man. A foot taller than me at least. Late thirties or early forties. Red hair down to his shoulders and yellow eyes. His clothing was odd—for Zephon at least. It was…something like a mismatched collection of robes, scarves, and striped pants. He had a black hat on.” That was as much as she could say about his appearance without delving into his mocking smile or hateful eyes, and Yuna was suddenly overcome with the urge to give them both a follow-up warning. “But…don’t fight him alone. If you see him.” Yuna paused uncertainly, wondering how much else she should say right now. Should she talk about the trails of black liquid that had leaked from his eyes? Should she talk about how much he had delighted in trying to kill her and that she had been forced to summon in a crowded hospital just to survive? What about how he had fought toe to toe with Shiva? Or that he was an unsent?
Maybe Yuna would talk to Caius about it later. She didn’t want to scare Bartz anymore after the terrible morning that he’d had.
Thankfully, the boys went on to talk about why they were there, and Yuna released the death-grip that she’d had on her staff without even realizing it. She was so distracted that she nearly missed that Caius said he had been to Provo to meet up with the king, but after a second it clicked, and she turned to stare at him. “The king…You mean Noctis? You found him?” She pressed a hand to her mouth, happy for Caius despite the yellow eyes still lurking in the back of her thoughts. “That’s wonderful! Are you going to stay near him for a while?” Truthfully, she still felt that she’d be incredibly honored to meet Noctis. Particularly since he appeared to be a summoner who had survived saving his world, and she was burning to learn how that was possible. Maybe she could ask Caius to introduce them soon.
Finally, Bartz took his turn and explained that he was there to explore and see what the world had to offer. “That sounds like a beautiful way to live,” Yuna commented. She didn’t think that anything like that lay in her future, but she could picture it. Waking up somewhere new every day. Giving up on her responsibilities and only doing something when she wanted to. It would never happen, but it was a nice thought. She admired Bartz for being such a care-free, wandering soul.
After a moment, Bartz dove to the ground, and Yuna initially tensed and gripped her staff, but he quickly popped back up, holding a yellow feather over his head before he allowed Vordun a sniff. Yuna laughed softly, remembering how Caius had showed him how to sniff out a deer on their first meeting. She imagined that he’d come along even further on hunting now, but she’d let Caius evaluate if Vordun could do it or not.
“They must be close, and that girl either doesn't know how to properly mount such a majestic animal or its hurt so we need to find them fast.”
“Hurt?” Yuna gave Bartz an alarmed look, lifting her skirt slightly to keep up as they took off down the road. “I can heal her if we find her in time, but…” Yuna let the end of the sentence dangle, but she knew she didn’t have to finish it. If she had been caught by monsters, then Yuna just prayed that this wouldn’t end in a sending. She'd done too many of those.
Yuna flushed slightly when Caius pointed out that her wording made it sound like she expected to do more missions with him. ”Oh! Ah...I’m sorry. I guess I misspoke.” Feeling embarrassed, she glanced over at where Vordun was stretched out next to him. After their travels over the past few days, Yuna had nearly forgotten that they had just been hired to do a job together. Now that it was over, she supposed that they wouldn’t see each other again unless Yevon willed it. It was a little sad to consider. They hadn’t known each other long, but Caius was definitely one of the people that she felt she’d connected with best since she’d woken up in Zephon a few weeks ago.
While Yuna was lost in thought, Caius stood up and turned to face her with a serious look on his face. He started talking about the Dragonblades again, and Yuna nodded in attention as he laid out that the group was full of warriors but also people with a strong character. “I’m glad you formed a group like that,” she murmured before she caught his next words.
“People like you.”
Parting her lips in surprise, Yuna stared at Caius as a smile crossed his face and he laid out how she had impressed him with her summoning and her decision to heal the bandits as well. “You did a lot more today than I did,” she protested, but then she paused when Caius extended a hand down to her.
“I'm sure I can confidently speak for both myself and the others when I say that the Dragonblades would love to have you... If you would be interested in joining our little family.”
A family. A purpose. The two things that she’d missed most since coming here. Yuna felt like she could hear her heartbeat pounding in her ears as she looked up at him. She didn’t know the full details yet, such as where and when the group met up or what the commitment was, but she knew enough from what he’d told her that she found herself reaching out and grasping his calloused hand. Climbing to her feet, she shot him a smile.
“A summoner without a purpose is an aimless thing on Spira. To be honest, the Dragonblades sound like exactly what I needed.”
She wasn’t giving up on her pilgrimage or on getting back to Lulu and Wakka. But until Yuna found a way back to Spira...well. She might as well do what she could to help this world, right?
Yuna clutched onto Shiva’s shoulder as some of the bandits fled but others rushed towards them. It had probably been stupid to make a target of herself, but she wanted to at least give them a chance to stop this needless fighting. The touch of the ice aeon’s armor seared into her palms with how harsh the cold was, and she fought a wince, raising her staff slightly as the people with guns drew closer. But in the end, she didn’t have to do much.
Yuna watched in amazement as Caius sent a fire spell exploding near the edge of the group that knocked the majority of the remaining people off their feet. He’d stated earlier that he knew some black magic, but watching him in action was something else. Even Lulu had still struggled with the mid-level spells when they had gotten ready to leave Besaid. Caius really was amazing in battle.
Before the bandits could regroup, Caius had started warping between them, his blows precise enough to fell someone with each strike. Her eyes landed on one of the men on the ground, and Yuna blinked in surprise when she noticed that he was going for non-lethal strikes to the shoulders and torso. The bandits would be injured and lose some blood, but they’d walk away from this after she made her healing rounds. Somehow Yuna liked Caius even more for that, and she shot him a slight smile, but he was basically a blue blur right now, and it was hard to land her eyes on him. That was fine. She could thank him afterward.
As the last person who had stayed to fight collapsed to the ground, Caius suddenly shot into view, but he immediately dropped to his knees and skidded to the side across the grass, looking satisfied but also exhausted. “Caius!” Yuna slid down off of Shiva, letting go of their connection and giving her a quick bow as the ice maiden faded back into the ether. She was beyond grateful for her help and normally would have taken longer to thank her, but she was too concerned with the blond man on the ground to not rush the process.
“Are you okay?” Rushing to his side, Yuna dropped to her knees next to him, feeling some measure of relief when Caius shot her a weak grin, joking between breaths that it was her turn.
“I guess you’re right,” she said with a faint smile. “You certainly did your part. You’re amazing in battle! I could barely see you sometimes.” Quickly scanning all the injured between the people in cages and the bandits scattered across the ground, Yuna let out a slow breath. She certainly had a lot of work ahead of her. She’d have to conserve her magic. “You can rest,” she reassured Caius. “I should be alright. I didn’t use too much magic after summoning Shiva. You and her did most of the work.”
Climbing to her feet, she gave Caius a grateful smile before heading off to the row of cages. While both groups needed her attention, she’d definitely focus on the innocent group first.
After what felt like hours of draining her magic to the very brink, Yuna finally stumbled back over to Caius and collapsed into the grass next to him. Laughing tiredly, she glanced up at him and smiled slightly. “Well? Would you say our first mission together was successful?” She didn’t know about Caius, but she felt like she could sleep for a week once they made it back to Torensten.
Yuna did her best to avoid the barrage of bullets being fired at her as she sped her way downhill. She ducked behind trees and kept up a steady stream of Protect spells. Her skirt and sleeves were liable to be full of rips and tears after this as they kept catching on loose branches, but she didn’t have time to worry about that right now.
This Shiva was certainly a different one than she was used to. Yuna winced at every pained yell that reached her ears, and she gripped her staff tighter, wondering if she should try to rein her in. Yuna hated to let people die, even when they had caused as much harm as these bandits had. This armor-clad figure was as graceful and elegant as the Shiva from Spira, but this one seemed to be much more of a warrior than she was used to. Still, she didn’t think that she could live with herself if she restrained Shiva too much and Caius or one of the prisoners got hurt. What was the right balance here?
As Yuna struggled with her moral quandary, Caius made his move. There was a blurred streak through the air, and then the man was suddenly near the front lines, swinging his sword and moving between groups of people so fast that Yuna could barely follow the action. This must have been his infamous ‘warp-strike.’ It was mesmerizing to watch, and Yuna would have been amazed and stopped to watch if it had been under other circumstances. As it was, she needed to keep moving.
Between Shiva and Caius, they were making quick work of their numbers. One of Shiva’s frost shards got dangerously close to Caius, and Yuna sighed in relief when the white orb circling above his head disappeared as it absorbed the blow instead. She was glad that she’d cast Nul-Frost on him before they’d started. As Yuna finally skidded down to the level ground of their camp-site, she noticed with a pang that the bandits’ numbers had really thinned out, and several were motionless on the ground. It was a horrifyingly sad sight. This was necessary, Yuna tried to remind herself. She and Caius were saving people. But she’d need to do a sending for the fallen regardless. They deserved at least that.
Caius cursed loudly, and Yuna braced herself for finding him hurt, but his eyes seemed directed towards the prisoner cage instead. Following his gaze, Yuna froze as she caught sight of a man fumbling with a key at the door. Yuna took off running after him, knowing that she’d never make it in time. The man hauled the door open and reached inside, and Yuna stared at the terrified, injured-looking prisoners before she threw out her staff. “Thunder!”
A crack of lightning struck the man just before he managed to grab anyone and threw him to the side where he hit the edge of the metal cage with a clang. He groaned feebly as Yuna sprinted up and knelt by his side. Snagging the key from his grasp, she laid a hand on him and murmured a cure spell as healing light briefly appeared at her fingertips. Whatever he had been about to do to the prisoners, she couldn’t bring herself to kill him.
With the door now open, some of the healthier prisoners bolted, and Yuna reached out a hand and cried out “Wait!” Not many of them listened to her (not that she could blame them), and Yuna could only pray to Yevon that they were able to avoid the chaos going on between Shiva and Caius’ devastating attacks. The injured prisoners mostly stayed put at least, and she breathed a sigh of relief for that. “I’ll be right back to heal all of you,” she murmured, pausing to cast a cure spell or two on the ones closest to her before she ran out of the cage again.
Shiva had automatically drifted closer to her, so Yuna ran towards her, tugging at their connection to let her know her intentions. Shiva offered her a hand in invitation, and Yuna clutched onto her icy grasp and scrambled up, sitting on her shoulder to put her above most of the crowd. She had often sat on Ifrit’s shoulder in the past, but where that had burned, this sent a frigid chill straight through her that she felt went to her very bones. She’d have to make this quick.
“We’re only here for the people you took!” Yuna winced and reinforced her Protect spell as a bullet struck it and nearly shattered the barrier. “Let them leave with us, and no more lives need to be lost today!”
It might have been naive of her, but she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she didn’t at least give them a chance.
Caius looked like he had seen a ghost, but maybe that wasn’t too surprising after he had shared earlier that some of her aeons were considered gods in his world. It made her wonder if they were somehow even more powerful where Caius was from, but she supposed that now wasn’t a good time to ask. Not after Caius pointed out that the people below likely knew something was going on now.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured, glancing over at the clifftop in the distance. She supposed that he had a point. Cold air generally sank, so the bandits and the people trapped in cages would have felt the rapid change in temperature even from the bottom of a cavern. Maybe they’d even send people up to investigate. “Shiva was just the only one who answered my call.” It hurt to admit a little. What use was a summoner who couldn’t get her aeons to come? But then, Yuna still wasn’t sure if that was because they’d abandoned her or because they simply didn’t exist in Zephon. One look at Shiva was enough to tell her that maybe this wasn’t quite the same entity that summoners prayed to at Macalania Temple.
Still, this wasn’t the time for worries. Shiva had come, and Caius was right. They had a job to do.
Yuna couldn’t help but laugh a little as Caius babbled about her doing ‘Shiva things’ before he took off at a run with Vordun at his side. He really was nervous around the armored figure next to her. It was kind of cute coming from the tall blond man who was normally a bit unreadable. “Nul-Frost,” Yuna murmured as an afterthought, casting an additional spell on Caius before he could get too far. He’d likely wonder about the tiny white ball of magic circling near his head, but he’d thank her if he got too close to any of Shiva’s attacks during the chaos. She wasn’t about to leave him unprotected from ice damage.
Following suit, Yuna took off at a run towards the opposite end of the cliffside than Caius had gone to. The grass brushed against the tops of her boots and pulled at her skirt, and she could feel Shiva’s icy presence behind her without even having to turn around. The cold was starting to raise goosebumps on her arms and shoulders. She wondered if the bandits could feel it too.
There was a small dirt path nearby that led down towards the hill. It was littered with tree branches and seemed a little steep, so Yuna took her time going down, lifting her skirt with one hand and holding her staff out with the other as she strained her ears for the sounds of anyone approaching. If it wasn’t for the slight hum of the connection between her and Shiva, she might have missed the click of the gun barrel in the trees to her left side.
Whirling around, Yuna swept out with her arm, and Shiva was at her side in an instant, ice shards spearing their way into the trees. There were yells of surprise—Yuna winced at the ones that sounded pained—but she didn’t have time to worry for her attackers. There was the crack of a gun shot that rang loudly in her ears as a bullet hit firmly in the center of the Protect spell that she had cast on herself earlier before attempting to summon. The force of the impact shattered her spell and sent her careening backwards. She just barely managed to take shelter behind a tree before the second bullet hit. A branch above her head exploded, and wooden shards rained down on her. Judging from the lack of further attacks, Shiva was keeping the men busy, but Yuna was still a little shaken as she rubbed her stinging cheek from where a piece of flying debris had hit her. There was a small amount of blood on her fingers when she pulled her hand away. Forbidden machina truly was terrifying. Yuna’s ears still rang with the sounds of their weapons.
Casting an additional Protect spell on herself, Yuna gripped her staff and dashed out from behind the trees as she continued her way downhill. Everyone remaining at the bottom had to have heard the gunshots, and she was positive that they’d be coming her way. Hopefully that gave Caius the opening that he needed.
Yuna laughed slightly when Caius said that she should give him suggestions on how to fight with Vordun. “Valefor’s really more similar to a bird with a few dragon qualities,” she said with a smile. “But flight will be incredibly useful when he's big enough. I know at least once, I pretended to jump off something and had her catch me below to escape.” It was another of those stories that just popped out of her mouth before she had time to think about it, but at the same time, it didn’t feel like a lie. Yuna was starting to accept that these moments were probably memories slowly creeping back to her.
Caius had some additions to her plan that were really good, and she nodded when he suggested that she summon Valefor to distract them and then he could warp down with Vordun for a second surprise attack. “You’re right,” she murmured when he suggested waiting to free the prisoners until they were done. As much as she wanted to free them immediately, they could get hurt in the onslaught or be used as leverage if they let them out too early. At the moment, the safest place for them might have been in the cages unfortunately.
“Give me just a moment then,” Yuna said, pointing back in the direction that they had come. “I don’t want them to notice me summoning if we’re going for a surprise attack. I’ll need just a bit of space as well.” Her aeons weren’t necessarily dangerous, but they could cause a lot of collateral damage when they appeared, so she usually had her guardians step back whenever she summoned in battle.
Giving Caius one last smile, Yuna walked back away from the cliff’s edge until she was confident that the people at the bottom wouldn’t be able to see her. She could still see Caius, so she gripped her staff and turned her back on him so she could focus. Truth be told, she was far more nervous than she normally was, because she hadn’t yet tried this on Zephon, but she couldn’t let him down or the people who needed their help. This had to work.
Taking a breath, Yuna swung out with her staff and spun in a fast circle to the side. Her sleeves and skirt billowed out as she turned and started to spread her arms, but she could already tell that something was wrong. She couldn’t feel Valefor’s presence, and there were none of the usual tell-tale signs that she was coming. No gusts of winds. No tinge of magic. There was nothing.
Frowning, Yuna stopped moving and stared at the distant trees in a panic. Did that mean that she couldn’t summon in Zephon? It felt like losing a part of herself, and she wasn’t sure that she could cope without it. What was even her identity if she couldn’t say that she was a summoner anymore? Biting her lip, she glanced back at Caius, deciding that she needed to try one more time before admitting defeat. She didn’t want to let either him or the people trapped in cages down.
Trying to calm down, Yuna closed her eyes and took a moment to just breathe and feel around for a connection. There did seem to be something there, though it was faint, and she was positive that it wasn’t Valefor, but she focused on it anyway. The air around her turned colder the more that she concentrated, and finally she opened her eyes and brought her staff down hard on the grass. Frost exploded out across the grass from the point of contact that her staff made with the ground, and she shivered as a cold wind blew around her while an ethereal figure gracefully materialized into view.
Yuna stared at the armored figure in front of her that glistened in hues of purple and blue like ice, and her lips parted in understanding. “Shiva...”
It shouldn’t have been possible. She hadn’t yet passed her trial at Macalania Temple, and this aeon didn’t look anything like the beautiful, immodestly-dressed woman that there were statues of in the temple. Still, she couldn’t argue her presence, and just thinking about Macalania Temple made her feel dizzy. Had she been there after all?
Suddenly remembering Caius, Yuna turned back towards him and gestured for him to approach. “Slight change of plans,” she said with a faint smile. “It looks like I’ll be using ice.”
