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
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Yuna felt her cheeks flush further as Caius teased her by complimenting her eyes after Bartz had. She gave him a reproachful look before laughing softly behind her hand. “Well thank you both then. I’m honored to have your favor.” She gave a bow in their direction that was far more exaggerated than normal, a slight smile on her lips.
Caius went on to enforce their normal service rate on the townspeople. Normally Yuna wouldn’t have approved of the tone he used, but she couldn’t blame him in this case. Something in her still simmered when she reflected on the large crowd ganging up on one boy. Not to mention that something about their eagerness to push this girl into a marriage that she didn’t necessarily want made Yuna incredibly uneasy. It felt almost familiar, and she might have followed this through even if it wouldn’t help out Bartz or the bride. She felt like she was potentially close to remembering something else.
Bartz had to be one of the purest souls that Yuna had ever come across. It took all of her summoner training to fight a laugh when Bartz gave the townspeople a thumbs up while hiding safely behind her. “Is he real?” Yuna whispered to Caius with a smile as Bartz started to head off down the path towards the chocobo corral. She hadn’t really thought it was possible that someone could be so cheerful, but she found that she liked it. She wondered if everyone that he came across was warmer for it.
As they neared the paddock, Bartz seemed to spot something, and he grinned as he knelt down to greet the small dragon waiting there. However, Yuna stopped in her tracks and gaped slightly, glancing between Caius and Vordun. “He’s huge!” Kneeling beside Bartz, she laughed softly as she looked the creature over. “He’s grown so much. You’ll be a dragon rider before you know it.”
After Bartz had finished up greeting Vordun, he continued on towards the chocobos, and Yuna gave Vordun a cautious look, wondering if he should wait there so he wouldn't try to eat the birds. She trusted Caius to know the dragon’s limits though, so she followed the brunette boy over to the pen without too many worries.
“I say we ask where she went from the other chocobos.”
Yuna blinked slowly at Bartz, wondering what he meant until he started making chirping sounds at the large yellow birds that the chocobos answered. Nodding emphatically, Bartz proclaimed that the girl had left shortly before dawn.
Yuna stared at him, wondering if he was joking, but her lips parted in surprise when his face remained serious. “You can…speak to chocobos?” She asked curiously. Clasping her hands together, she leaned forward in interest. “That’s amazing! How did you learn that?” Truth be told, she was half convinced that he might either be making it up or have taken a rock to the head, but she wanted to be supportive either way.
Bartz didn’t wait around long before starting to make his way down the road towards the edge of the town, so Yuna quickly followed him after making sure that Caius was still behind her. Her smile faded slightly when Bartz asked what they were both doing there, and she hesitated before answering. Her hands clenched tighter around her staff.
“I’m working as a healer. There’s a plague going around Provo right now that can turn men into monsters. I’m traveling around to try and help after I had a run-in with the man responsible…” Yuna hadn’t slept well since then. Sometimes she still caught flashes of the man’s yellow eyes and oily smile in her dreams, but that didn’t seem like good travel conversation. She suddenly wanted the attention off of herself anyway.
Yuna felt her cheeks warm a bit as Caius said rather nonchalantly what he was reading about. “Oh!” Laughing lightly, she pressed a hand to her mouth for a moment. “Poor Celes. But if you didn’t know, then that makes sense.” It looked like she wouldn’t need to borrow that book after all. Yuna didn’t think that dating was in her near future, and the idea of reading about it made her feel flustered anyway.
She was almost grateful when the topic switched back to their fighting styles, though she faltered a bit when he asked about what aeons she had verified that she could use here. "...I haven’t verified yet,” she was forced to admit. “To be honest, I’ve only been in Zephon for a few weeks. But if I do summon, it will be Valefor.” Or she assumed at any rate. By her current memory, Valefor was the only aeon whose trial she had passed so far, but she’d had more than a few flashes in recent days to make her question that. But that was too complicated to get into with Caius now.
“Valefor looks like a cross between a bird and a small dragon,” she described, glancing over at Vordun as she did so. “She has the power of flight so she can carry me, and her attacks involve wind.” Yuna missed Valefor just talking about her. Hopefully she really did appear in Zephon. “As for black magic...I’ve verified fire. It’s possible I’d also have thunder, water, and blizzard. More than possible, really. I don’t know why she’d only teach me one of the four…” Yuna mused almost to herself before shaking her head. “Then my specialty is white magic of course. Healing, curing status ailments, nullifying certain types of magic damage…”
Yuna nodded as Caius went on to describe his own abilities. He sounded like a fairly balanced fighter, and she was pretty excited to see this “warping” that he’d inherited from Noctis from his earlier stories. After he’d finished, Caius sent Vordun ahead to scout for them, and Yuna fought a small giggle as the baby dragon struggled a little on getting airborne.
“That’s too cute,” she said with a slight smile, settling back against the chocobo as they waited for Vordun to come back. When he eventually flew back, it turned out that he had found something, so they quietly followed the dragon to a small cliff. Frowning, Yuna flattened herself to the ground to take a quick peek over the side, letting out a sharp intake of breath at the sight of the cages.
“That’s cruel,” she murmured, pulling back from the edge as she wondered what the bandits' plans were for them. Would they kill them? Surely not if they’d gone to the trouble of locking them up. Maybe they planned to ransom them against Torensten?
“What do you think?” She murmured to Caius. “There’s a lot of them down there. Maybe one of us could try to distract them while the other tries to free the people in the cages? I don’t mind doing the distracting since you can warp.”
Either way, they could use some preparatory spells, so Yuna took the time to cast Protect and Shell on both of them while she waited for his response. “To help with physical and magic attacks against us,” she explained quietly. She'd hate for their voices to carry down to the bandits after all.
Yuna glanced curiously at Caius’ book as he packed it away. “Well it must be working,” she said with a faint smile as he explained that the purpose was to prevent further misunderstandings. “I haven’t found you offensive at all.” Truth be told, she could probably use something like that too if it was helping him understand Zephon’s culture. She didn’t understand it very well herself yet, and she’d hate to offend someone on accident. Maybe she’d ask Caius if she could borrow it when this was over. They’d have to plan a time for her to give it back to him, but she didn’t think she’d mind seeing him again.
“Really?” Yuna perked up on her chocobo’s back when Caius said that he’d worked with a white mage before. “That’s perfect then. I’m used to working with heavy hitters. At least two of my guardians were back home.” At least Kimahri was. She wasn’t entirely certain if Wakka counted or not, but he could certainly do damage with that blitzball of his.
As their chocobos started to make their way out of the clearing where they had settled down for the night, Caius asked about her offensive capabilities, and Yuna hesitated slightly in her response, feeling as if she was missing a few pieces as usual. Hopefully more and more memories would come back to her the more missions like these that she took.
“I have my aeons. Ah...My summons, I mean.” She hadn’t yet had reason to summon anything on Zephon, but hopefully Valefor would answer her call here as clearly as on Spira. Yuna’s thoughts flickered to the fire that she’d started in Yazoo’s hearth the night that she'd arrived, and a slight frown crossed her face. “And a small amount of black magic. Fire spells and that sort of thing.”
That one was still unexplainable to her. Lulu had mentioned that she might teach her some spells near the end of their pilgrimage once the fiends got more dangerous, but Yuna was positive even with her spotty memory that she hadn’t learned any black magic before setting out on her journey. But then how else could she explain why she could use some of those spells here? Lulu had to have shown her. She just couldn’t remember when.
“Anyway, the man who hired me thought the delegation must have been stopped not too far from here. That was the last they heard from them at least,” Yuna explained in an effort to change the subject away from herself as she glanced towards a dark blur of trees on the horizon. “Hopefully we don’t have to go all the way to the headstone forest though,” she said with a faint smile. “I’ve heard some unpleasant things about it. Have you ever been before?”
Caius certainly didn’t seem to be much of a morning person. Yuna laughed when he informed her in a half-groan that the last person who’d woken him up had lost an eye. However, as he expanded on that, she quickly realized that it hadn’t been a joke, and she pressed a hand to her mouth in reproach. Well, at least it had been a bandit. She supposed that she couldn’t blame him for that too much.
Caius set about making their breakfast, and Yuna watched the cup noodles intently this time, hoping to figure out the trick to it. But all Caius did was add water to it and set them close to the fire until steam was escaping the lids. There didn’t seem to be anything more to it.
“You say this isn’t magic, but I find a hard time believing that,” she murmured, giving him a smile of thanks as he passed her a cup when it was finished. Blowing gently on the broth, she carefully took a bite of noodles as Caius settled down across from her and buried his face in a book. She didn’t want to bother him too much while he was reading, so Yuna took her time eating in comfortable silence before eventually setting her empty cup to the side.
“What are you reading?” She finally asked, taking the time to lean forward and put out the fire since they were getting ready to be on their way. Standing afterward, she stretched upwards, still sore from sleeping on the ground, before making her way over to where they had left their bags last night. Collecting her staff, she dug some of the gysahl greens out of her bag that the chocobo rental place had provided them with before heading over to the birds and giving them their breakfast as well.
“So,” she began, turning towards Caius as the chocobos dug into the greens. “I guess we should be prepared for anything, since we don’t really know what would have stopped them from getting back to Torensten.” Her mind jumped between the possibilities. Bandits. A storm. Monsters. In any case, she just hoped that they wouldn’t be too late. “Whatever we find, I’ll trust your combat abilities if we need them,” she said with a slight smile. “And I’ll support you however I can. I have a pretty wide range of white magic.”
After the chocobos had finished, Yuna proceeded to saddle hers up before climbing on its back and settling her staff across her knees. “Ready to go?” She asked, taking a last look around their campsite. She had enjoyed their brief time here. But now it was time to finish their job.
Yuna smiled at the boy as her words seemed to calm him down. He gave her a small smile in return before commenting that her eyes were pretty. Yuna immediately felt her cheeks warm a bit as she cast her eyes to the side. “Oh! Ah...well thank you.” Yuna found herself a little tongue-tied at the compliment. People normally shied away from commenting on her eyes since they marked her heritage as half an Al-Bhed. But maybe that didn't matter here.
Collecting herself, she blinked slightly as the brown-haired boy hid behind her while Caius approached. Caius didn’t seem overly happy with the boy--maybe he was worried for what could have happened if the fire had reached more than just his clothes. But to her relief, he did agree in a gruff voice that they could replace his cape, so she shot her friend a grateful smile. The promise seemed to make the brown-haired boy feel better too, because his face lit up with joy as he held out his raised pinky finger.
Yuna stared at his hand in confusion, glancing at Caius briefly to see if he had any thoughts on what it meant. Was this some kind of custom in Zephon?
“Um...Yes.” She wasn’t sure what to do with his outstretched pinky, so she brought her hands together into the traditional Yevon prayer and bowed to him instead. “We promise. It was our fault after all.”
“How can you protect a kidnapper and thief?"
Yuna frowned as she turned to consider the crowd. She couldn’t picture the boy doing any of those things, but she let him do the talking as he and a few people in the crowd went back and forth. Gradually, she started to piece together the story. It seemed that he had told a girl that if she wasn’t ready to get married, then she should take the time to find herself until she was ready, so she had taken his advice and stolen a chocobo to run away.
Yuna frowned slightly, the townspeople’s attitudes prickling at her. She wasn’t sure why, but it bothered her. There was a flash of a veil in front of her eyes, and Yuna suddenly clenched her fingers tighter around her staff. “No one should ever be forced to get married,” she said more vehemently than she had meant to, before blanching and pressing a hand to her mouth. Where had that come from?
Yuna didn’t have time to dwell on it, because the girl’s father started to weep in fear for his daughter, and Yuna blinked at him slowly before glancing at Caius.
“People in this village certainly cry a lot. Do you think it’s a custom?” She whispered to Caius before turning back to the boy as he immediately volunteered to go find her. That was brave of him. He seemed like he had a good heart, and Yuna smiled at him again when he asked for their help.
“Of course.” Holding her staff down by her waist, she gave him a short bow again. “We do owe you a cape. And if she’s alone, then we should find her somewhere safe.” Somewhere safe might not be here if the villagers were so quick to push her into marriage. But Yuna left that unspoken.
Caius confirmed that he’d met several people who had memory loss, and Yuna let out a slight breath at the confirmation. She wasn’t sure if it was a relief or not to hear that. On the one hand, it was nice to know that there wasn’t anything wrong with her and that it was just a common piece of the transition. But on the other hand, Caius hadn’t said anything about people recovering their memories over time, which is what she had hoped for.
“But well, if they have amnesia, and nobody recognizes them...” Yuna got the picture without Caius finishing his sentence. Would she be like that? Wandering Zephon and forever stuck at the beginning of her pilgrimage because she hadn’t been able to find anybody who knew her? She didn’t want to think about it.
Yuna felt her cheeks grow a bit warm as Caius teased her for acting like her story was long. “Well I don’t mind that yours were long. I enjoyed them,” she protested with a faint smile on her lips. “As for mine…” she hesitated slightly, remembering his words from earlier about learning to trust people with his burdens. “I’m still learning. Like you. That I don’t need to shoulder everything,” she admitted, glancing at the crackling fire between them. “So…next time. I’ll tell you one that’s a little longer. Until I can do it as well as you.”
Yuna smiled at him, nodding when he suggested that they turn in for the night. Pulling some supplies out of her bag, she got more comfortable until she was curled up in a blanket a little ways away from the dwindling embers of the fire, her pack under her head as a makeshift pillow. It wasn’t the most comfortable of set-ups, but something about sleeping close to a fire felt both familiar and comforting. Yuna took a moment to appreciate the smoke drifting lazily up towards the clear sky. The rented chocobos curled up together nearby. Her staff propped against a rock outcropping near her head. Her traveling companion and his very sleepy baby dragon making up their own bed across the way. It was all peaceful in its own way, and at that moment, Yuna wouldn’t have traded it for a comfortable bed.
“Goodnight Caius,” she murmured, drifting off as she watched the constellations above them.
Yuna awoke because she was cold. Opening her eyes with a displeased noise, she blinked slowly at the morning light shining into her eyes. Slowly, she became aware of the birds chattering above her and that the fire had died out sometime in the night while her blanket had slipped down to around her waist. No wonder she was cold. Pulling the blanket back up to her shoulders, Yuna sat up to consider her surroundings, grimacing at how stiff she was. The worst part about sleeping on the ground was always how she felt the next morning.
Glancing over to the side, Yuna fought a smile at the sight of Vordun still curled up next to Caius. They were going to be quite the pair when Vordun was older.
“Good morning,” she murmured to wake them up. She hated to do it, but they needed to be on their way. “Do you have anymore of those…cup noodles?” she asked like she was saying the name of a spell. “We should eat breakfast. It will be a long day I think.”
Yesterday had been a lot of fun between the stories they’d told and the hunting they’d done with Vordun, but Yuna expected that today would be more serious. Today they had a delegation of people to find. She just hoped they weren’t too late.
Yuna smiled at the boy, trying to convey reassurance as she offered him a hand so they could flee the crowd. She hadn’t been called ‘lady’ in quite a while, and it called to mind the people of Besaid who would bow to her and call her ‘Lady Yuna’ after she’d become a summoner. It made her like the boy instantly, and she was more determined than ever to help him escape.
As she scanned the crowd for an opening, a familiar voice cut through the din, and her lips parted slightly in surprise at the word ‘Fira.’ Someone in the crowd was a talented black mage. But was the man attacking them or attacking the crowd? As Yuna stepped back to survey the group, her eyes locked with a large brown pair near the back, and she jolted in surprise. She knew that long blond hair and the slight bulge in his jacket that hid a dragon.
“Caius!” She cried out, surprised but also a bit relieved to see him. She knew that he was a kind man who was unlikely to ever attack civilians, but his intimidating appearance suggested otherwise. She hoped that maybe his bluff would be a big help in scattering the crowd away from the boy.
Unfortunately, his bluff seemed to work a little too well as the brunette boy next to her bolted a few steps away just as Caius threw his spell. “Wait!” She cried out, throwing out a hand without knowing if she was talking to Caius or the boy. Either way, she was too late. The ball of fire crashed to the ground near them before bouncing back up and hitting the scared boy in the back.
Yuna cried out in fear for him, holding her staff in front of her and getting ready to summon Shiva to put out the fire. It was the last thing she wanted to do in a crowd of people where it could be dangerous for them, but she refused to let him burn.
Thankfully, the fire seemed to have just hit the boy’s cape, and he managed to yank it off of himself before stamping it out on the ground. Yuna let out a sigh of relief and lowered her staff, but it was short-lived when the boy suddenly burst into tears, screaming his confusion at the crowd before curling up on the ground with the remains of his cape. Yuna gave Caius a concerned glance before hesitantly approaching the boy and kneeling on the ground next to him.
“It’s okay,” she murmured, clasping her hands on her knees. “My name’s Yuna. Why don’t we figure out what’s going on together? We won’t let them attack you again.” She hesitated, glancing up at the blond man who had approached them from the crowd. “And this is Caius. I know him. He didn’t mean to hurt you. His aim was just a little…off.” Her lips twitched slightly into a smile as she turned away from the brown-haired boy to look up at her friend. “He feels terrible though. And we would love to help you replace your cape. Won’t we, Caius?” She gave him a slightly reproachful look as if daring him to disagree before scanning the crowd a little hesitantly. She’d almost forgotten about them in the boy’s distress.
“Can…we talk about this please?” She asked, finally rising to her feet. “What has he done to you?”
After the events in the hospital in Provo, Yuna hadn’t felt the same. Everywhere she turned, she imagined that she saw the red-haired man leering at her or lying in wait to kill her. Sometimes at night she still heard the screech of the infected person that he’d set on her, and she spent a lot of time thinking about the blue-haired man that he’d reminded her of. Who was he? Was this another memory? If so, then the mysterious man from her past must have been dangerous if he was anything like the man from the hospital had been. How could she have forgotten something so important?
It was frustrating, but nothing was more frustrating than the state of her aeons. Shiva had answered her call when she had been in danger, but that shouldn’t have been possible. Yuna had never even been to Macalania Temple, let alone completed Shiva’s trial. Valefor should have been her only companion right now, but he refused to answer her call. Yuna had spent countless hours outside, waving her staff and begging for him to come, but all to no avail. She couldn’t feel any of the aeons here. Only Shiva.
Yuna decided that what she really needed was some time away from Provo. She didn’t want to go too far. She wasn’t planning to run from the red-haired man—she still wanted to send him after all—but she knew that if she faced him again right now, then he’d get the better of her. She was afraid of him, and she didn’t want to be. She needed some time to clear her head and maybe to regain a few more of her memories before she’d ever be able to defeat him.
In the meantime, Yuna wanted to do what she could to reverse the damage that he was doing to the world. The sickness that he had spread in Provo was starting to infect people in the small towns just outside of it. It was the perfect way to help while also serving as a distraction, so Yuna spent the next few weeks wandering the countryside and offering her services as a healer when needed. She wasn’t able to help the most far-gone of the infected, and every single person that she watched succumb and turn into a monster just renewed Yuna’s determination. She was going to stop the red-haired man or die trying.
Yuna had spent the past few days staying in a small hamlet just south of Provo. It was a lovely, small town that reminded her a little of Besaid, and she was relieved to find that the plague hadn’t left its mark here yet. She really shouldn’t have lingered as long as she had when they had no need for her here, but the close-knit community just reminded her so much of home that she couldn’t resist. Every moment here was a treasure. She loved visiting the marketplace. She loved the smell of the wild grass that grew nearby. And she had to fight a smile as the innkeeper gushed to her about a large wedding going on soon. She might not have been able to live in a small town anymore, but she could enjoy it while she could.
The town was generally quiet, so Yuna was surprised to hear a commotion as she made her way out of the inn one morning. Frowning, she made her way down the winding road towards the marketplace and eventually found herself at the back of a shouting group of people. “What’s going on?” She asked in confusion, but her voice was lost in the din of the crowd. Straining to stand on her tip-toes so that she could see, Yuna stared at the boy trapped between two angry mobs. He had a slightly horrified look on his face, and a slight trickle of blood was making its way down his face. Yuna could immediately see why as people in the crowd launched rocks at him, and that instantly infuriated her.
“Stop! Whatever he’s done, this isn’t right!” She tried to grab the first man in front of her to make him listen, but he quickly shook her off him. Steeling herself, Yuna gripped her staff and waved it towards the front of the crowd. “Protect!” She cried out, and a blue shield in a hexagon pattern formed in front of the boy. The next set of rocks that people had thrown bounced off the shield and were flung back into the crowd. There were cries of surprise, and some people near the front of the group faltered. Yuna took the chance to push through and run towards him.
“Hurry! We need to get you out of here,” Yuna said, extending a hand towards the boy and holding her staff in front of both of them. Biting her lip, she eyed the crowd surrounding them. The last thing that she wanted to do was hurt anyone, but she could never tolerate a group bullying one person like that.
The man ignored her entirely and spoke directly to Shiva. Yuna watched him carefully as he goaded the aeon. Something about his manner had changed. He no longer looked like he was enjoying himself, but the condescension in his face had doubled. He looked so hateful that Yuna was honestly surprised. He clearly disliked summoners, but to despise the fayth themselves? What did this man have against their sacrifice?
“Ten years?” Yuna echoed the man slowly, feeling her heartbeat speed up at what that implied. He hadn’t seen Shiva for ten years. Gripping her staff tighter than she had before, Yuna stepped closer to Shiva so that she could easier meet the man’s piercing yellow eyes. “My father became the High Summoner ten years ago. When he died,” she said warily. “So tell me what happened ten years ago that you would despise them and their summoners.”
Had her father done something to him? She wanted to vehemently deny the possibility. Her father was a gentle soul, and she was positive that he would have wanted to send this man too if he were still alive. He couldn’t have been in the wrong.
Still, there was a flicker of doubt in her that wasn’t able to be extinguished as the man seemed to lose his patience and pulled his sword on Shiva before her questions could be answered. Yuna stiffened and moved back a pace or two to give them space--she knew how large an area an aeon’s attacks sometimes needed. Shiva moved gracefully in a cloud of ice and frost and met the man’s relentless attacks blow for blow. Still, Yuna was amazed at how well he seemed to be keeping up with her. She’d never known a human to move in pace with an aeon before, and the man’s hair once again flickered blue in her vision.
Sucking in a breath, Yuna touched the side of her head and blinked rapidly a few times until the vision faded and she could see that his hair was most assuredly red. What was that? Another memory returning? If so, then why did this man keep triggering them?
Yuna was still struggling to catch her breath when the man’s magic collided with Shiva’s and some combination of ice and shadows struck the wall and crumbled plaster and drywall like it was nothing. There were muffled screams from the hospital room next door, and Yuna froze in place for a moment before shaking her head. What was she still doing here? She wanted to wait close by to send him, but she couldn’t when their battle was so destructive. She should be evacuating the sick!
“Fight in my place. Please,” she quickly prayed, waving her staff to cast Protect and Shell on Shiva before rushing to the door and hoping that her aeon could keep him distracted. At the very least, he didn’t seem interested in her in the slightest anymore.
Yuna slammed the door closed behind her again and started to run down the hallway, almost colliding with a group of doctors and healers who had gathered to stare at the door in fear.
“You need to evacuate!” She begged them, wondering what a sight she made with her bloody wounds, torn dress, and skirt stained with black fluid. “Please listen to me. The patients are in danger here. That man with the red hair. I think he might be the cause of this plague.”
Yuna wondered if they might have argued with her more if the sounds of clashing metal hadn’t come from the quarantined room at that moment. The aftershock was so great that it rumbled the floor, and Yuna had to steady herself against the wall, staring at them in desperation.
“Please. I don’t think this place will be standing much longer.”
It was painful to admit. She was part of the problem after all. She didn’t have to summon Shiva indoors, and the truth struck her like she’d been slapped in the face as she ran after the doctors and helped to carefully load patient after patient onto stretchers so that they could be transferred. She’d been selfish. She’d chosen to live and she’d put countless people in danger for that choice.
She'd never be able to atone for this. Not for as long as she lived.
Yuna frowned slightly as Caius went more into detail about the man who had killed his family and followed him to Zephon. She wasn’t entirely sure what a daemon was, but from the earlier story he had told when they had first left Torensten, she assumed that they must have been similar to fiends. Especially if people could turn into them.
“I see,” she commented when he clarified that Cortez and Ardyn had no relation. “Sorry for asking. I know that must have been hard to tell just on its own.” Yuna decided that she should probably let the topic drop after that. She appreciated deeply that Caius had confided in her, but she didn’t want to go probing into the personal relationship he had with the man who had ruined his life. They should know each other better before she asked too many deep questions.
Caius didn’t seem surprised by Yuna’s admission that she didn’t remember much before Zephon, so she gave him a curious look when he acted like she had just said something entirely rational. “Is that...normal?” She asked a bit hopefully. Everyone that she’d come across so far had seemed to remember everything about themselves. But if it was common to lose something in the transition, then maybe that meant there was a way to get her memories back.
Yuna gave Caius a grateful smile when he commented that there was no pressure to come up with a story. Still, he’d told her several good ones, and she felt a little embarrassed that she had so little to contribute with her memory problems. Pausing, Yuna took a moment to try to piece together her thoughts on what she did remember.
“There was the day I became a summoner,” she finally settled on, glancing up at the night sky above them. The smoke from their fire drifted up lazily towards it before disappearing into the darkness. “I had studied at the temple for years. Ever since I was a child. It’s supposed to be this big, solemn occasion. First, you have to pass a trial to even reach the altar. To prove your wit and dedication. Then the summoner enters the altar alone and prays to the fayth to earn their favor. And sometimes they’d accept and you’d become a summoner.”
Yuna paused before laughing softly into her hand. “There are so many rules around it. Everyone I’d ever met before saw the trial as sacred. Only summoners and their guardians are even allowed to approach the altar. But then this boy came to our island after I’d been inside the altar for over a day. He...told the priests that they could stuff their rules and burst inside.”
She laughed again, smiling slightly as she glanced to the side over at where her staff was lying by their things. “I can’t even remember his name. But I wish I could thank him. He taught me that not everything needs to be so serious. That even a journey to defeat Sin could still be full of laughter.”
Yuna was suddenly aware that she had been talking for a while, and she felt her cheeks flush a bit as she glanced back up at Caius. “I’m sorry. I suppose it’s getting late if you wanted to sleep.” They still had a delegation from Torensten to find after all.
