The Alexander chapter! The story’s not bad but I don’t have any particular attachment to it, so let’s just focus on the kickass music! Every single track from these raids is groovy AF.
Chapter 41: The Fall of Diabolos
Chapter 42: So Much for Retirement
Aentfryn poured himself a mug of tea and sat on a simple wooden chair by a simple wooden table in a simple wooden hut he had built himself in the Dravanian Hinterlands. There was room and to spare out here, and it was a beautiful land. He’d carefully picked a spot on a little island on the Thaliak River, close by a gorgeous clear blue lake, not too near Idyllshire and the remnants of Sharlayan, but not too far from it, either.
The aftermath of the trip to Dun Scaith had seen all the adventurers off with plenty of treasure – the houses of the town, and the castle, had been fully furnished, all ready for people to move in. Aentfryn had sold his share quickly and bought building materials with the proceeds, carting them off to the middle of nowhere, and with the aid of one or two goblins from Idyllshire, building a small cozy house to retire in. He’d decided. Zurvan was going to be his last fight, whenever that happened. After that, he was moving on. The others could go on whatever adventures they liked, but he was in his forties and that was old for an adventurer, a mercenary.
He wouldn’t lose touch with them entirely, of course. He had become too fond of them for that. The little house was just the beginning. It would become a farm, a ranch, and he would take care of their chocobos when they were not elsewhere, instead of the adventurers having to put up their birds in each city they went to. It would be good for the ‘bos to spend their time in nature. And their owners would be welcome to visit; he would eventually expand the house such that they could all stay if they wished. But that was still in the future. He’d just finished his one-room starter house the day before, and he hadn’t even unpacked his personal belongings yet. Tomorrow he was going to go pick up his various pets from various places around the realm, and bring them to their new home.
Eos suddenly slammed into the expensive glass of the kitchen window, beating on it with her little fists, casting noisy spells, screeching in the high-pitched fairy tongue.
“What in Hydaelyn’s name’s gotten into you?” he muttered in concern, and got up to look outside.
He sprang back from the window, grabbed the pack full of his belongings, and sprinted from the house.
A giant metal claw descended from the sky and landed squarely upon the house, flattening it and leaving no trace that it had ever been there.
Aentfryn stared at the lake in furious disbelief. Its crystal blue waters were now almost entirely filled by some mechanical being the size of a city emerging from the depths, steam hissing from it, red lights glowing softly. It almost filled the shimmering shield that had always been around the lake, doming it over like a colossal soap bubble – suspiciously neatly, as if the shield and the mechanical construct were related. The plants at the edge of the lake had withered brown.
“MOTHERF-”
“A primal,” Achiyo said, staring at the motionless giant protruding from the lake. “How can such a thing be a primal?”
“An excellent question,” Cid said. “But there’s no doubt. Y’shtola already came to have a look at it, and she said the land would be drained of all aether in a matter of mere moons. Seven hells! How much power does that thing need?”
“It was only active long enough to crush my house, and that depleted the entire lake of aether,” Aentfryn growled, gesturing at the dead vegetation. “And I’m certain it’s still drawing in aether passively at this moment, waiting until it has the strength to move again. What I want to know is, where the hells did it come from!?”
Cid nodded. “From what Backrix has been telling me, the Illuminati are the most likely culprits. They have the knowledge to summon a primal, and the requisite shortsightedness not to think better of it.”
“I’m going to strangle the lot of them,” Aentfryn said.
Achiyo looked up at him. “I am sorry about your house. I know you put a lot of work into it.” Eos patted his head sympathetically.
That seemed to cool off the Roegadyn. “It… will pass. But the primal summoning can’t stand.”
“No,” Achiyo said firmly. “Zurvan remains quiet, but the Illuminati will undoubtedly be actively seeking to cause trouble. This is a task for the Warriors of Light – though I wonder how a mechanical primal can Temper followers…”
“Well, it’s real nice to get out here!” R’nyath said, breathing deeply. “Ishgard’s so dang cold this time of year, and Revenant’s Toll only a bit less. At least here we’re kind of close to the sea, so it’s not quite so cold.”
“True,” Achiyo said. “But messages must be sent, to both Vidofnir, and to Aymeric-sama. They should know of this threat, even if we will contain it.” She looked over at Rinala, who was staring at the primal in wonderment, but not enthusiasm. The young woman’s spirits had been flagging again since Dun Scaith, and whether it was from remaining in Revenant’s Toll during these cold winter months, or from Thancred’s long absences, she did not know. She should send her home to Thanalan for a while, to recover with warmth and family – but not yet, they needed her now. “Rinala?”
Rinala jumped and hurried over. “Yes?”
“Could you go to Anyx Trine and tell Vidofnir of this? She may be days away by foot, but she still ought to know.” That would keep her busy for a little while, and speaking to a kindly soul.
“Okay,” Rinala said, and began to Teleport.
Chuchupa came stomping up with her treasure-hunting group behind her. “Damn, that’s a right big ol’ clanky metal mammet thing, all right! What d’ye call it?”
“On the surface, it appears to be a Sharlayan Defence Mechanism, only oversized,” Cid said in amusement. “Perhaps ‘robot’ would be a better term for colloquial use.”
“It is also a primal,” Achiyo said.
“Is there treasure inside?” Doctor Naomi asked.
“I do not know,” Achiyo said. “But since it is a primal, I would ask that you leave it to us this time.”
“Fine by me,” Naomi said. “But I can be nearby if you like. I’ll set up shop in Idyllshire for a bit, how does that sound, Crim?”
“Sure,” Crim said. “I imagine there’s plenty of work around here for folk with our skills.”
“I’m not staying,” Reid said.
“I am!” Yllamse said, jumping up and down. “This sounds like fun!”
“I believe we should stay,” Meanna said, with a glance at Florian.
“I should get back to Ishgard,” Linnea said. “Syndael’s doing a bit better, but he misses me even though I call him by linkpearl every night.”
“I’ll see you back, and head on my own way,” Reid said to her.
That would solve Achiyo’s second problem, and she began to write a note. “Could you pass a message through Ser Syndael for me? I wish for Aymeric-sama to be informed of this.”
“Sure, glad to,” Linnea said, and accepted the note. “Good luck!”
In due course, the Warriors of Light repeatedly made their way within the arm of the massive machine. Though it appeared still and silent on the outside, nothing could be further from the truth inside. Every surface held a faint tremour and vibration, and they could hear sounds resounding through the structure. It sounded to Achiyo like a heartbeat, like something nearly alive – but not quite. Or perhaps like music, though a cold, mechanical sort, throbbing, thudding, ringing metallically. Steam hissed through pipes and from valves, lights blinked in ways that were unintelligible to her.
R’nyath seemed to be having fun, and when they were not tearing through terrifying mechanical constructs or hordes of fanatical goblins, he was playing on one instrument or another, using the rhythms of the giant as a background to his improvisations.
“This place gives me a headache,” Vivienne said. “You’re not helping.”
“Is it the sounds, or the abundance of lightning aether, or the dry air?” Rinala asked, reaching up to cast Esuna. And then, as if she couldn’t help herself, she did a little twirl in time to the music and kept dancing as she walked. Achiyo smiled to see it.
Vivienne’s face eased too. “All of it, I’m sure. All I can say is the goblins had best get out of my way.” The way she had gone at the first nine-fulm robot that barred their path, which had nearly taken her arm off, could attest to that.
“Well, I like the music,” Kekeniro said to R’nyath, who smiled at the compliment. “But that’s one reason why I’ve been pulling back after each encounter. It’s not making me feel great either.”
“It isn’t bothering me?” R’nyath said. “Maybe because I’m too occupied trying to turn it into inspiration.”
“I thought it was going to bother me, but I got used to it,” Tam said in curiosity. “I’m actually vaguely curious about this place.”
“Why would you be more curious about this than any other place?” Kekeniro asked.
“I would have thought you of all people would know without asking,” Tam said. “It’s not Allagan nor Garlean, and it’s so far removed from what the average Eorzean would make that it may as well come from a world far beyond mine. The Illuminati build machines, sure, but this seems magnitudes more complex than even they can handle. Can summoning do that? Just ‘wish on a pile of crystals and let the magic take care of the details’?”
“You raise a good point,” Aentfryn said. “And where did they get the aether just to summon this behemoth, even if they cannot power it without destroying the world?”
“The Scions’ve been slacking,” Chuchupa said jokingly. “Not us, we’ve been fightin’ plenty. But shouldn’t someone have noticed a bunch of crystals goin’ somewhere?”
“Things to ask Quickthinx,” Vivienne said grimly. “At the point of my sword.”
They did not defeat the primal that day, nor yet the day after – and a week later, as Biggs and Wedge tried to contain it, the giant swung its other arm out of the lake. There was a new door accessible through that arm, and the Warriors of Light entered in search of more things to break.
The Au Ra treasure hunter Mide had been joining their party; it seemed that the robot, Alexander, did not wantonly Temper those who came near, and she chose the risk to enter its form. But she was not a simple seeker of fortune as Chuchupa or Naomi might be; she was intimately connected with the robot. In fact, the treasure hunter job title was perhaps nothing more than a cover, a decoy.
They dragged the entire story out of her eventually, how she and her Auri tribe had sought to pursue knowledge in the highest ideals, seeking to bring about a world with no pain, no sorrow. How she had fallen in love with her leader, Dayan, and aided him in the first summoning of the primal three years ago with no second thought, and how it had led to tragedy.
“After everything you’ve been through, you can’t seriously think any good will come of reviving Alexander?” Vivienne demanded when she had heard everything.
“Good has nothing to do with it,” Mide said. “Understand, I did not act out of any lingering adherence to my old ideals. I simply wanted to see him again. And perhaps… walk to the ends of the world with him.”
Vivienne’s gaze hardened without sympathy, but R’nyath sighed in romantic appreciation. And Achiyo herself found that thought lingering with her throughout the day, drawing her into contemplation in quiet moments.
If she lost Aymeric, and the only way to see him again was to summon a primal – no, that way led to the tale of Bahamut, summoned by Tiamat. She had lost so many whom she loved, and she had learned to live with that loss. If she lost him, she knew full well by now that finding him again was like to bring as much pain again as the losing – but still, what would she do with such a temptation?
No, if fate brought her such grief, she would end her life as a Warrior of Light and go wandering again rather than risk betraying them both like that. Though was there anywhere left on this star that would be vast enough to swallow such pain…?
But she did not believe that such was the future for them, not in this moment. She was ready to hope for joy, or at least happiness, that he would live long and in peace thanks to their combined efforts. Even if her life did not lead her to his side, as long as he lived she would be happy for it.
For her, time was the one law that must be accepted. Whatever had happened, it had happened, and trying to change it was dodging responsibility instead of taking responsibility. If she turned back time at all, she might as well go back to undo the first tragedy in her life, her parents’ deaths – and then her life would be utterly different. Perhaps those who had died for her might live. Perhaps some who now lived would die without her intervention. She almost certainly would never have come to Eorzea and met her friends – though she would have had other friends, surely; she would never know what she did not have in either timeline. There was no saying that in the end, anything would be better than its current state. The only certainty was that she would keep trying to make the uncertain future better for everyone.
Biggs had been listening to Mide as well, and shook his head at dinner. Mide was not with them. “Tale old as time, eh? Woman falls in love with man, man gets sucked into primal, woman tries summoning primal to be reunited with man… Load of old rot, if you ask me, but Mide seems to believe it.”
“Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme,” R’nyath sang, and laughed, poking Rinala. “You know that song?”
“Huh?” Rinala looked up. She’d been looking sad again.
“That play doesn’t fit the circumstances at all,” Vivienne said. “Though I have difficulty in saying which situation is more ridiculous, the play or real life.”
“I thought that once someone joined with a primal, there was no getting them back,” Tam said, seemingly oblivious. “I suppose it’s different with a mechanical summon. I wouldn’t know. Magic is still a foreign concept to me.”
“At least the world’s getting broken for love, right?” Kekeniro said cheerfully. “Not power or revenge. It’s a nice change.”
Achiyo wanted to reach out to Rinala, and she could see R’nyath wanted to as well. But there wasn’t anything they could do in that moment. Mayhap later, in private, she could comfort her.
Yet things kept happening, one after another, and their quest took on new urgency when little Roundrox was captured by the Illuminati. Pursuing her captors deep within Alexander, they caught a glimpse of the main interior of the robot. It seemed immense to Achiyo, almost larger than the outside, a glittering city of metal and lights encased within a huge metal shell. It was actually rather magical. Could it truly be larger on the inside than outside?
But they could not rescue the goblin girl yet, and had to retreat for the time being. Then Achiyo made time, for she did not wish to put this off and allow Rinala’s melancholy to fester if she could help it. “Are you unwell?” A blunt question, but she did not know how else to broach it.
Rinala shoved pebbles on the riverbank around with her toe. “I’m fine, really. Just…” She sighed mournfully. “You know.”
“Mayhap,” Achiyo said. “Mayhap not. Will you not speak with me?”
Rinala shrugged. “It’s silly, really. I know I’m being silly. It’s Thancred, and I know that’s not really… I miss him, and how we used to be, but I just need to be patient. This is really important, what we’re doing right now, and what… what Thancred is doing is important, and… I know he is still upset about Minfilia…” She sighed again. “I was just thinking about what Mide said yesterday, about how she wants to see Dayan again and walk to the end of the world with him. I can see Thancred again, but… would he want me beside him?”
“If it were just as a friend, would you be content?” Achiyo asked. “At least for now?” Was it unfair to suggest? She had been given signs that her own feelings might not be unreciprocated, though she was still not secure in his feelings whatever R’nyath and Chuchupa might say. Still, she was far more at peace with her situation than Rinala was with her own. It did seem a little unfair to tell her friend to be content with yet less.
Rinala looked even more miserable. “I-I don’t know.” She looked away, towards Alexander, and saw Mide further along the river, also looking at the giant. “I want to ask her something.”
She approached the Xaela slowly, and Achiyo followed her. “Mide,” Rinala asked, as if with a great effort, “did… did Dayan love you back?”
Mide looked surprised, then looked away to the robot without smiling, reaching up to touch her scar as she often did when thinking of her love. “Yes. Though we had only newly confessed to each other when… But it doesn’t matter. Even if he had not returned my feelings, I would still have done all that I have done.”
“Oh,” Rinala said. Achiyo could not read her.
“In the depths of my despair, with the loss of my friends still fresh in my mind, I would have given anything to take back what we had done,” Mide said softly. “Even if it meant my own life. But the world does not work like that. And even if it did, it is not what my beloved would have wanted.”
Rinala stood there silently for a minute, then walked away without answering.
The goblins had spared no effort in their final attempt to keep the Warriors of Light away from the core of the right arm. At first it seemed like just another twenty-fulm tall robot with missiles and lasers, but then-
It activated rockets and took off, flipping upside down. More robots swooped in- “Didn’t we already kill those!?” Aentfryn exclaimed – and they spun around, fusing together with bright sparks of lightning.
A thirty-fulm tall bipedal robot landed before them and flexed with surprising agility, and from speakers on its chest a blast of brass music rang out.
“What!?” R’nyath yelled in surprise and glee. “This one plays actual music!? Oh my gods I love this-”
“Shut up and bloody run!” Vivienne shouted, pushing the Miqo’te out of the way of a laser beam that split the air between them. The air was alive with screaming, curses, the music from the robot, and R’nyath laughing and whooping.
“I don’t care if they’re singing about how they’re going to horribly murder us, this is the best fight we’ve ever had!” he shouted over the music.
“Oh no, um, oh, oh dear,” Kekeniro was mumbling. “Five hundred million things are about to happen at the same time and I don’t have time to explain it all so…” He took a deep breath. “Don’t stop running!!”
It took a lot to alarm Kekeniro. And yet Achiyo somehow found herself not overly worried. The chamber was utter chaos, and yet they were still alive and fighting. There were narrow misses aplenty, and more close calls than normal, and yet… perhaps it was the incongruously cheerful music, but she found her heart light as she ducked punches from a fist the size of her entire body and stabbed at metal legs that danced away from her.
Gradually the chaos became controlled as they tore the robot to pieces, until it froze up with a clank and teetered, falling on its face with a groan of metal. Achiyo had already turned away to look for the exit when she heard it explode behind her. She let out a breath, and looked at the others, smiling. “I think I actually had fun.”
“Wait, ye don’t normally have fun in yer fights?” Chuchupa said. “I thought ye were just allergic to showin’ feelin’s. What’s wrong wi’ ye?”
“It is my job,” Achiyo said in some confusion. “I do not do my job for fun. I enjoy my skill, but normally the stakes are too high for me to take pleasure in battle. And I don’t enjoy killing fellow Spoken folk, when that is the situation before me.”
“So we need to fight more musical robots!” R’nyath said. He was so elated by it all that Achiyo half-expected him to grow wings and taken flight. Certainly every word that came from his mouth now was half-sung, and his ears were twitching with frantic energy.
“Ye need to come wi’ me to the Wolves’ Den, seriously,” Chuchupa said. “Ye keep turnin’ me down, but it’d teach ye the art o’ fightin’ fer fun.”
Achiyo chuckled. “Very well. You win. I shall come with you. Now let us find this core and end Alexander’s ability to move.”
Something strange was afoot. The enemy goblin leader seemed to have knowledge of the future, and Backrix claimed to have seen the Warriors of Light leave only moments before returning. Cid, Biggs, Wedge, and Y’shtola had all put their heads together with Kekeniro, Aentfryn, and Mide in a hurry – somehow Alexander had reversed time inside itself and repaired both of its arms that the Warriors of Light had fought so hard to incapacitate.
But if time travel was involved, Achiyo was staying well out of it. Just listening to their speculations made her confused, and when she tried to puzzle out even a piece of time-altered cause-and-effect on her own, she became hopelessly lost.
It took a few days – days in which Alexander remained blessedly still and silent – but Wedge eventually came up with a new plan of attack for them to try. It involved lowering the barrier temporarily and attempting a direct assault on the robot’s head.
It worked, somehow – Alexander pressed down on the earth with both its mighty arms, raising itself further from the water, and when the Garlondworks crew reactivated the barrier, the tip of its head with its access hatch was just outside of the barrier. Achiyo hoped that the shield really would hold back the rest of the giant. Especially after Mide and Y’shtola determined that the primal had the thirst and the ability to drain not only Dravania of aether, but the entire star.
Their next entry, aiming at the Central Control room, brought them through an especially perilous array of traps. Not only were Achiyo and Vivienne faced with a particularly large and strong goblin, the size of a Roegadyn, armed with a huge sword, but there were electrical currents – lasers – jets of fire – huge sawblades – falling maces – and floor spikes.
“Still havin’ fun?” Chuchupa said to R’nyath as the goblin tumbled into the abyss beneath them, and they all wiped the sweat from their faces.
“Less than last time!” R’nyath answered, showing his fluffed up tail with a shaky chuckle. “Nearly got split in two by one of those saws. In a couple years the memory will be hilarious.”
Rinala was shaking, her longer-furred tail even more poofed, and Achiyo hurried to her as she began to hyperventilate. “Rinala! All is well. We are well. Take deep breaths.” She put her hands on Rinala’s shoulders, that she would not get dirt from her armour on Rinala’s clothes, but Rinala did not seem to care as she slumped forward into her arms, wailing.
“That was too scary!! That was too much stuff! That was worse than the weird thing with the arms we fought yesterday!”
Achiyo felt her heart ache for her, and she knew the comfort she offered was hard and cold through her armour, but she did her best, patting her back soothingly. “R’nyath, will you take over healing for a while? That would be all right, wouldn’t it, Kekeniro?”
“Yes, that’s fine,” Kekeniro said. “Sorry that was so hard, Rinala. You did great!”
R’nyath swooped in and took Rinala from Achiyo, giving her a proper hug. “Yeah, you’re the best! That was real scary as you said but we made it! And if anything else happens today I’ll heal, you just start blasting.”
Rinala sniffled and wiped her eyes. “Thank you, everyone. I will be all right. We can keep going.”
Past one more elevator they came to Central Control. They met with Cid, Mide, and Y’shtola there – and Roundrox, strapped into a chair facing the Enigma Codex.
“So this is the Enigma Codex,” Cid said, peering at it. It was dark, but a faint multi-hued shimmer across its surface hinted that it was awake. On the ceiling above glowed gears of light, swirling in complex patterns.
Y’shtola looked down into the shaft below it; Achiyo looked too, and saw a huge iridescent blue crystal that put her in mind of Hydaelyn Herself. “And that must be the third and final core. Twelve have mercy… If you could but see the volume of aether issuing from it…”
“Pssshkoh… Yes…” Roundrox said weakly from her chair. “Much swirlybright… Timewings… can spread… Travel to overtimes… Make bad things… good again…” Had she already done so, or was that what they had told her?
Mide’s face was overcome with longing. “Could it be…? Do we truly have the power to change the past? I could erase my mistakes… I could see him again…”
Mide had been speaking to herself, but Roundrox perked up and turned to her. “Three… Three years ago… Mide lost dear one… Mide wants dear one back, yes? Roundrox… Roundrox helps Mide…”
Mide gasped and reached out to her. “Roundrox, no! You must save your strength!”
Roundrox’s voice was faint with concentration. “Mide… worries too much. Roundrox is strong gobbie… Uplanders… hold on to braincases. Timewings… spread!”
Lightning flashed between Roundrox and the Enigma Codex, and the gears that revolved shuddered to a halt… and began to reverse.
There was no stopping it. All they could do was witness the worst moment in Mide’s life, and understand that unwittingly they were the cause. And when it was over and they could flee with Roundrox to the present, Mide remained behind in the machine, her face calm with the blankness of despair.
The Warriors of Light weren’t sitting idle after that! They needed a rest, but bright and early the next day they entered Alexander once more. Surely destroying the main core would end the robot’s ability to consume aether.
Of course it had a guardian, an intricate robot that could assume the form of a sailless airship. Achiyo found it surprisingly aesthetically pleasing. But it struck hard with its blades, and was well-equipped with missiles, lasers, and other weapons that made her very glad her mithril armour and Fortemps shield were well-enchanted.
“Compass!” called Kekeniro. Everyone ran to the edges of the platform away from each other. Explosions rained down. “Group up!” More explosions.
“This is ridiculous!” Vivienne exclaimed. “I’m nearly ready to just be struck by the blows aimed at me, only I have no wish to hit any of you fragile lot in turn.”
“Look, it’s very simple,” R’nyath said, grinning. “You go forward and back, and then forward and back, and then go forward and back, then put one foot forward-”
“Shut up!” Vivienne said. “Don’t you dare make a song out of this!”
“Too late,” R’nyath said, openly snickering.
“Compass!!” Kekeniro yelled louder over their arguing.
Quickthinx was a sham, a fraud, a deluded hack, reading Backrix’s far-too-detailed journal that he had dropped during their brief trip to the past, and taking it for prophecy. But the loop of time had been closed. Now the future was unknown again, anyone’s to claim, and Achiyo determined that the Warriors of Light would be the ones to do it. So though they had not destroyed the core nor rescued Mide, they withdrew to rest, and again the next day they approached the crystal core of the giant. Y’shtola and Roundrox would come when they were certain it was safe for the girl to approach the Enigma Codex once more.
“Well, we probably don’t have much time,” Cid said as they set foot upon the blue observation platform before the core. “Quickthinx did say he locked all the corridors and floating platforms that-”
Achiyo had not even blinked but now before her stood a metal mountain and a huge orb of light, a dangerous rumbling electric hum- “DOWN!” she shrieked, and threw herself to the side as an enormous laser blasted ilms from her head.
The metal mountain, parts of it vibrating and spinning – was it a small version of Alexander itself!? – vanished into a rift, which did not fully dissipate, but condensed into a dark orb hanging ominously in the air before them, like a sinister invitation.
Cid gasped and slowly pushed himself back to his feet, and behind him so did the others. Miraculously, no one had been vapourized, but everyone was shaken and wild-eyed. “Seven hells!” Cid cried, brushing himself off with slightly shaking hands. “Now that was a bit too close for comfort. Is everyone all right?”
“Talk about a narrow escape!” Wedge exclaimed. “If I’d been standing so much as a yalm to the left, I’d be a pair of smoking boots by now!”
“It appears everyone is alive and unharmed,” Aentfryn said, as Selene fluttered to all of them in turn. “Where did it come from?”
“It looked like a mini-Alexander,” Tam said. ” Alexander inside Alexander, hm? I think we can go further.”
“Look, I don’t know what that thing was or where it came from, but I’m pretty damn sure I know where it went – or more accurately, when,” Cid said, adjusting his goggles. “If I’m not mistaken, what we’re looking at is a localized distortion of time. The only real question is when our metal friend will reappear… Hm. Better not to wait, lest it catch us unawares a second time.”
“Then we should enter this distortion and destroy it there,” Achiyo said. She didn’t like it. Who knew what would happen on the other side of the rift? Would the small Alexander not have even more control over time in there? They might be walking to an easy doom. But Cid was right; waiting was worse. She turned to her companions. “Are we ready?”
One by one, they gave her a nod, a ‘yes’, a smile. She took a deep breath, set her shoulders, drew her sword and shield, and walked towards the rift.
Achiyo felt a slight disorientation as she stepped into the orb, but the darkness seemed to open up around her into light as she stepped through, into a borderless space of swirling aetherial green-blue for a sky and a neon green horizon. They stood upon a golden, mechanical-looking platform in the midst of a flat waste of clouds, through which mechanical castle towers poked from the unseen depths below. There was no rift behind them, no returning or retreating.
Before them the small Alexander stood, vibrating, humming, pieces rotating and spinning back. It looked like a small castle itself, or a battleship, a metal palace with arms and a turret-like head. It observed them, but did not move to attack, no laser lights glowed in power-up within it. Yet.
“Okay,” Kekeniro said. “I can work with this. We should stay a little more spread out than usual though, in case time goes funny and we don’t have time to react.”
“Are we still ready?” Achiyo asked again, and received a yet firmer answer. She set her sword and shield and charged ahead. The air was clear and cool on her face, and she felt the determination in her heart beating firm.
Now the forty-fulm robot slid forwards to meet them. “I am Alexander… the Creator. You… who would prove yourself worthy of your utopia… will be judged.” Lasers flashed out of its body at her and she ducked behind her shield.
“I don’t think we want a utopia,” Tam said, jumping high, his lance rattling down the machine’s side with a horrible screech. “That idea usually goes downhill pretty quickly, doesn’t it?”
“Does that mean that not havin’ a utopia is our utopia?” asked Chuchupa.
“Tam, your land sounds kind of utopia-ish,” Rinala said. “At least compared to here.”
“Big spell coming in, healers be ready!” Kekeniro said. “Philosophy later, please, I don’t want to be distracted! Lasers, group up here by me!”
“What I want to know is what gives this mechanism the right to judge us for wanting to live,” Vivienne said, ducking a laser from the giant and striking back with glowing Cronus. The Warriors of Light dashed around Alexander, in haste and yet certainty, trusting in each other and themselves. Achiyo couldn’t see much from her position right at the giant’s foot, and through the brilliant lightshow emanating from it, but she could hear them and the confidence in their voices, and she nearly smiled to hear it. This was not going to be easy… but they were going to do it.
“The time of judgement is nigh…” A new temporal rift opened before them, swallowed Alexander, and spat out a handful of smaller black-and-red robots that swarmed them. Achiyo hastily cast Flash to turn their attention to her, and then regretted it as she was surrounded by a dozen robots twice her height all attempting to punch her at once. She cast Hallowed Ground with a gasp so she didn’t have to worry about it.
But Vivienne was there with her, taking some of their ire, casting Salted Earth around them, and under the barrage of their friends’ attacks, the robots clattered into pieces and disappeared into aether.
As the last one fell, the ground shook. From the clouds before them rose a huge figure – Alexander, the full-sized one, and the lights on its head blazed red. It raised itself to full height, looking down on them like toys, and steam hissed from its head. A warning klaxon rang out – or was it music? “Executing judgement protocol in 10 seconds…”
“If that laser scales, we’re going to need stronger than strong shields…” Kekeniro muttered. “Achiyo, Vivienne, can either of you do something? Something like what Achiyo did during Nidhogg’s Akh Morn?”
Achiyo looked up at the robot ready to annihilate them, and felt the aether around her, felt an answering surge from within her. She raised her sword as she met the giant’s red-lighted gaze, and once more a huge wave of aether crashed around them, solidifying into an aetherial wall that faded from view quickly – but they were protected. It was not as strong as when she had held Hraesvelgr’s Eye within her, but her conviction was unshakable still.
Then they had to shield their eyes as lasers crisscrossed the field, erupting the world around them. Rinala squeaked and she and Aentfryn healed them – but the wall had protected them from the worst of it, dissipating the explosions, the light, the fury. “Sonic boom,” said the music emanating from the robot, hard and fast, and then a string of manic words so rapid and distorted as to be gibberish, but so rhythmic that she could not believe it to be anything but part of the throbbing, pulsing music. She did not… like it per se, but it certainly filled her with energy. R’nyath laughed in delight to hear it, prancing around and headbobbing.
When she could see again, the huge Alexander had disappeared, and the smaller one stood before them again. “You who would inherit the future… You have proven yourself… worthy.” It flexed its arms, and metal arcs that had been on its shoulders reformed themselves into a gear-like halo behind it as bright white angel wings burst from its back. The sky’s aetherial veil cleared, and they stood under softly-clouded blue skies with huge gears the size of mountains slowly rotating in the distance. All this she took in at a glance, for Alexander moved forwards to attack them again.
“R’nyath, Aentfryn, get away!” Kekeniro cried. “Everyone else, group up!”
“If we’re worthy, why are we still fighting?” Aentfryn grumbled.
“Judgement has been rendered…” Alexander proclaimed over its soundtrack. “The verdict of history is…”
Achiyo suddenly felt heavy, as if she had been struck by an aetherial weight, but she had not seen anything. Was that another attack outside of time, as she had feared? She felt that was rather dishonourable – even rude. But Kekeniro had read the aether and saved them yet again.
“To the past with you, to free these ones from the prison of time…” Alexander ordered. Four of the smaller robots materialized and went to the four points of the compass, entering small time rifts.
“Attack group, after them!” Kekeniro called, following his own orders and chasing one of the robots, along with Tam, Chuchupa, and R’nyath. “Aentfryn, help Achiyo in reading the aeth-” He was gone.
Well, there was nothing to do but to hope that they returned swiftly. Achiyo did not feel completely comfortable in fighting such a formidable foe without the comforting voice of their tactician, but she had been in plenty of battles without him too. They would weather the fight until he returned. Perhaps she ought to be more worried about the attack group – they had no healers with them, if they ran into trouble…
Alexander’s lights flashed. “Temporal reconfiguration aborted… Insufficient data… Insufficient data…!”
The others reappeared at the edges of the arena where they had left, and ran in to continue the battle. “We saved ourselves!” Chuchupa yelled. “There was little robots makin’ time stop fer us when Alex appeared with that laser in the core and we killed ’em and it restarted time fer us just in time so’s we could jump out of the way! So we got saved by us from the future-”
“Shut the hells up, godsdammit!” Vivienne snarled, dancing away from a swirling pool of black magic that exploded into stars. “Talk about it later when we’re not fighting for our godsdamned lives!”
Alexander lifted its head. “Commencing spacetime interference… O fortress that is mine own body, heed my call!”
The platform shook again, nearly knocking them all from their feet, and that giant form of Alexander once more rose to lean over them.
“How!?” Rinala cried. “We’re inside Alexander, and fighting it too, so how can it be here again!? How many Alexanders are there?”
“A to the L to the E X ander,” rattled off R’nyath in time to the music – how he was able to pick out enough sounds from the gibberish to tell they were words, Achiyo did not know. “Whoo, this is awesome! Rise up!”
“Focus up!” Kekeniro called. “Its eye is looking at me and… Chuchupa! Keep moving! Not long now!”
The encouragement strengthened Achiyo’s wearying arms, and she gritted her teeth and gasped in air as she struck back. All eight of them working with one goal, one will, they would bring their foe down!
There was a shudder and a crack, and Alexander’s wings rose and fluttered – and the colossus burst into aether.
R’nyath whooped, and Chuchupa cheered, and the rest of the Warriors of Light followed them in triumphant celebration. The huge Alexander leaning over them also evaporated in a burst of light, trailing away into sparkles, dissipating into the air, leaving them alone in the midst of this mysterious landscape out of time.
Only for a moment, for without the will of the primal to keep the timescape in existence, it fell apart – and the next thing Achiyo knew, she was back in the core where they had been with Cid, Biggs, and Wedge. And there they were, the three engineers, blinking at them in surprise.
“That was fast!” Cid said. “But I suppose that’s only to be expected. How long did it actually take?”
“I’d say… twenty minutes,” Kekeniro said. Achiyo blinked. To her it had felt longer.
“We saved us!” R’nyath cried.
“What!?” Wedge exclaimed. “When? How?”
“Let us explain later,” Achiyo said hastily. “You have not had time to secure the control room yet, have you?”
“No, you only just left,” Cid said. “Together, then!”
Quickthinx had been ended by Alexander itself – but that struggle had shattered the Enigma Codex. Without the Codex to turn off Alexander’s core, the core had begun to suck in magic at a terrifying rate. Mide, believing Dayan to still be conscious within the core, had told them to leave, and then made a graceful swan-dive straight into the crystal.
As they ran down corridors and jumped onto lifts, they heard her voice faintly, as if echoing from the metal itself. “Alexander will trouble you no longer…”
So now Achiyo and her companions watched Alexander from the riverbank, the giant frozen in time, waiting – for what, she did not know. Was Alexander simply part of the landscape now, a fixture for eternity? Had Mide and Dayan been reunited? What was it like in their existence? She had no answers for any of these questions. But she hoped they were at peace.
Backrix ran up to them, waving a book. “This is Sharlayan legendbook from Y’sthola! Backrix has waited for legendbook for long time! Backrix has been reading about many, many things. About Enigma Codex, and blue-haired uplander that writes it. And look here!”
“Oi, are you feeling all right, there?” Biggs asked, leaning over the frantic goblin. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”
“Page tells faerielegend of Hotgo tribe, uplanders of blue hair. Many, many years ago in oldtimes, two children – boy and girl – outstep from belly of great steel giant. Two children grow to man and woman, becoming father and mother of great people of Hotgo… Names of two are… Dayan and Mide! Look at handdrawing! Even faces are same-looking!”
“Ye gads!” exclaimed Wedge. “If that’s our Mide and Dayan, why, that means that one day they’ll be freed from their fate, and reborn far, far in the past!”
“So they’re their own ancestors?” asked Aentfryn. “I’ve heard of becoming one’s own grandfather through legal trickery, but this goes beyond the pale.”
“Hnnn,” Kekeniro said, scrunching up his face like his head was aching. “They came from the Hotgo tribe, but they also created the Hotgo tribe, so the where did they truly come from if it’s all recursion? Like if the Hotgo people have blue hair because they had blue hair, but they have blue hair because the Hotgo people have blue hair… where did the blue hair come from? Metaphorically speaking, of course, I don’t know if that’s really a defining trait. But it’s like a story with no beginning. Only now we’ve gone beyond the loop, and… and doesn’t that mean we were always going to win? Because the tribe wouldn’t exist if we hadn’t won. Or are there other timelines where somehow we didn’t win but Mide was still there with us – but then if we didn’t win, and she wasn’t there, then there wouldn’t be anything to fight, so it wouldn’t happen at all-”
Vivienne got up and stomped away. “I quit.”
“What will you do now?” Achiyo asked Aentfryn. “We will certainly all contribute if you still wish to rebuild your new home and retire for good.”
Aentfryn heaved a sigh and looked to the horizon. “If there’s one thing this adventure has shown me, it’s that retiring is pointless. Drama will find me anyway. Even with the world as peaceful as it’s ever been in the past two decades, in the quietest corner of the land, something happens. So…” He folded his arms grumpily. “I will continue to adventure with you.”
She smiled. He was putting on a front to protect his feelings. “I am grateful. Thank you for continuing to take care of us.”
“Stop making a big deal out of it,” Aentfryn said. “Anyway, Eos and Selene would get bored and miss you all.”
“We are certainly happy to have them, too.” Achiyo laughed as the fairies came to pat her face.
“How’s Ishgard doing?” R’nyath asked as he, Rinala, Achiyo, and Aymeric sat down to another dinner together not long later.
Aymeric stifled a sigh with a smile. “I fear I have become chaperone to a government of grown children. They quarrel fiercely over the smallest of things. Yet am I glad, for unlike before, we walk forward together, finding our way at the behest of the many, not the one from above; thus far, our system has withstood the strain, and our hearts hold steady.” He glanced down. “I could only wish they were less unruly about it. I have had to become quite creative in maintaining order at times so that all are heard. It is not like running the Temple Knights at all.”
“Really? How so?” R’nyath asked.
Aymeric shook his head. “Calling my lords and ladies by creative names tends to get their attention long enough for an actual point to be made, for one. But come, let us not speak of my work – ’tis tedium itself next to yours. Pray, what did you see in Dravania? You promised to tell me everything.”
R’nyath and Achiyo glanced at each other. Achiyo knew he wanted her to take the lead here, but he was the better story-teller by far! But he was being stubborn, and if she did not speak in the next few instants, it was going to become awkward. “It began with Aentfryn’s house by the banks of the Thaliak River…”
“By the Fury,” Aymeric said in wonder when they had wound down their tale. R’nyath had eventually taken pity on Achiyo and shared the storytelling with her, even singing some of the songs he’d heard – though even he had not been able to tell what Alexander’s last song said in its entirety. Rinala, too, had cheered up and contributed over the course of dinner. Now they sat in the drawing room with tea. “True love, time travel, a primal, metal monsters, a sinister society… Such a tale comes straight from the stuff of legend.”
“Sure does,” R’nyath said. “I guess not many people will believe us.”
“I shall not be repeating it in full to the House of Lords, that much is certain,” Aymeric said, and Rinala giggled. “Though Lord Artoirel would surely believe you.”
“Yes, I think so,” Achiyo said. But that was only because they had grown so close that now he called her sister. “Emmanellain will not care if it is true or not, so long as he has news for his friends.”
“I shudder to think how the tale will grow in his telling,” Aymeric said thoughtfully. “But for my part, I give thanks that you have won through yet again. Though I take it that in hindsight that should not have been in doubt?”
“Don’t remind me,” Rinala said. “Kekeniro tried to explain but it just made me more confused! I don’t like time travel.”
“And we didn’t know that until afterwards, anyway,” R’nyath said. “So we didn’t know we didn’t have to doubt. And y’know, maybe if we knew, we wouldn’t have tried so hard, and then failed after all. I dunno! Time is weird.”
“Then I will say no more on it,” Aymeric said with a smile. “And I thank you for telling me.”
“It was our pleasure,” Achiyo said. “I’m only amazed that you managed to make time for us so quickly.”
A… shy grin crossed Aymeric’s face? “I will admit to entering this into my schedule as a diplomatic meeting. Then none can question me when I cannot attend a much more routine meeting. …I should not do it too often, though.”
“A diplomatic meeting?” Rinala exclaimed.
Aymeric’s grin grew wider. “Aye, for ’tis in Ishgard’s best interest that you are fond of me, is it not?”
Achiyo would not blush, and willed her answering smile to be free and easy. He was only joking.
“Well, you’re fond of us too, so doesn’t that make us even?” R’nyath asked. “I kid, you know we’ll help out whenever.”
Aymeric’s smile faded slightly, but his expression remained sincere. “I know. You are the truest of friends.”
“As are you,” Achiyo said softly. And regretted the way she had said it, for their eyes met, and held, and it was as if they were the only two in the room. She withdrew her gaze and looked to the two Miqo’te beside her on the sofa. “And the others will say the same, were they here.”
“Yeah, they just decided to rest up after all that,” R’nyath said. “And actually maybe we should think about that too, right?” He looked at Rinala.
Achiyo did not know if Rinala was on the romance conspiracy, but at that moment the young Miqo’te let out a yawn, and stood and stretched. “Oops, you’re completely right. Thank you so much for having us over, and the good food, Aymeric! It’s so nice to visit you. We’ll have to tell you about the sky pirates next time.”
“It is always my great pleasure, Rinala, R’nyath, Lady Achiyo,” he said. “I thank you for indulging me, with your company and with your adventures, and I am dearly looking forward to hearing of these sky pirates. I will not keep you from your rest. Only…”
Rinala opened her mouth to respond and then noticed that he was looking at Achiyo and shut it again quickly.
A thousand thoughts rushed through her head. “I should be glad to hear more of the book we began, Aymeric-sama. If it would not interfere with your own rest.” She had managed to completely overthink everything in the span of one breath, but R’nyath had said to her ‘follow your heart,” and so she would…
“Book?” Rinala whispered to R’nyath. So she was probably not on the conspiracy.
“I’ll explain in a bit,” R’nyath whispered back. “Yeah, we’ll head out, but thanks for having us, and have a good night!”
Aymeric saw them off, and returned with more tea for them both. “Now, we had left off where Princess Isobelle had escaped from the dread tower…”