I love the DRK 70 quest so much.
The concert went well! I made an annoying audible mistake in Zanarkand, but everything else went pretty good (and the audience was making noise anyway so fingers crossed they missed it). And then I wiped out from concentrating so hard. Took a very rare extra day off this week and finished this chapter with it. Was hoping to get further into 4.2, but at least we’re moving.
Chapter 70: The Sword of Tamehiro
Chapter 71: Blackest Night
It had been three days since Vivienne had returned Myste-less from Gyr Abania, and she was practically prowling the street below the Forgotten Knight while Sidurgu and Rielle watched her. “…Godsdammit, Myste. Does he want me to track him down, or what?”
“He needs to return the remainder of the aether he stole from you, if nothing else,” Sidurgu said. “He said that when this was finished, naught would remain of him? Bloody vague and ominous, to say the least… We’ll just have to press him for answers when we find him.”
“‘We’?” she asked. “You’re coming?”
Sidurgu shrugged. “We started this journey with you, may as well finish it. I’m feeling better, though still not at full strength – but it will do.”
“I’m going too, and I won’t take no for an answer,” Rielle said. “Besides, you’ll need someone else to help you do the talking. Sid’s no good at it.” Sidurgu rolled his eyes but didn’t argue.
She smiled thankfully at them both. “Let’s start in Rhalgr’s Reach, then.”
It did not take long among the ostlers and medics to find traces of Myste’s presence – not least of which seemed to be that he had learned something of aether from an Adder conjurer, and somehow murdered a flock of chocobos without leaving a mark on them. Vivienne seethed in uncomprehending annoyance – what in the seven hells did that boy think he was doing!?
“Wait – are you that boy’s keeper?” asked the ostler she’d been talking to.. “Are you responsible for him!? ‘Cause if you are, you owe me an explanation!”
She turned away, giving him a careless wave of farewell, and fortunately he found her black armour intimidating enough that he didn’t follow her.
Sidurgu and Rielle reported that Myste had been spotted heading further East, and together they headed through the tunnel. They hadn’t gone far on the other side when they came across the bodies of a couple Gyr Abanian hornbills, crumpled but unbloodied.
Rielle lifted a wing to check for certain. “They’re dead. Just… dead. Like the chocobos in the story you heard.”
Sidurgu kicked over the other one. “No visible injuries, no bleeding. Aye, it is as Rielle says: these beasts died for no discernible reason. Just like the chocobos that man in the Reach claims Myste somehow killed. But it doesn’t add up. Other than his singular magick, Myste was utterly helpless. Unless… was he always capable of this?” He frowned at Vivienne.
“I’m hazarding a guess that he figured out something from that conjurer he spoke to,” Vivienne said.
“He stole your aether when we first met him,” Sidurgu pointed out. “I think he had it all along.”
Rielle shrugged at them both. “Even if he could do it, even if he did do it… why?”
“We’ll ask him when we find him,” Sidurgu said grimly. “And this time, you’ll let me do the talking.”
The road split, so they parted ways; there were few to no clear tracks on the dry, dusty ground. The sun was setting, coming down in red clouds over the Black Shroud. They would not be able to search for long before they had to return to the Reach to rest.
Vivienne had walked for maybe a quarter hour when suddenly there was a burst in her linkpearl. “Vivienne-” Sidurgu’s voice growled, and then he grunted, like he was in battle.
“On my way!” she cried, and ran, Cronus bouncing heavily on her back.
She came up behind them a few minutes later, and found Rielle lying on her side, huddled in a little ball on the ground. Sidurgu crouched before her, gasping for air, leaning on his sword with a sickly sheen of sweat on his face; his tail thumped in anger on the ground. He glanced back at her as she raced up. “Seven hells, I hate being right…”
Vivienne skidded to a stop and knelt beside Rielle, putting a hand on her shoulder. Rielle only huddled further into herself, whimpering: “No… Mother…”
Vivienne looked up and glared. There stood Myste, a dark and sinister aura churning about him, and beside him… Rielle’s mother, waiting as if for orders.
“On your guard,” Sidurgu told her. “Myste has shown his true colors. The aether or whatever else he took from those beasts has given him tremendous strength… Contrary to his earlier warnings, conjuring another simulacrum wasn’t the end of him. And of all the wonderful people he had to pluck from our memories, he chose Ystride de Caulignont. He knows why we’re here, and this is his answer. He summoned the monster that haunts Rielle in her dreams and sends her screaming from her bed.”
“Forgive me, Sid, but you gave me no choice…” Myste said mournfully. There was a strange light in his eyes.
Vivienne squeezed Rielle’s shoulder and stood, stepping forward in front of the exhausted Sidurgu. “There is always a choice.” She was shaking with rage – that this thing would dare to harm Rielle like this – using knowledge that Rielle had probably told him in confidence, no less.
Myste shook his head sadly. “…No. There isn’t. Not really.” He gesticulated passionately. “Can you even remember why you came here? Can you even remember how many you killed? How many lives shattered, how many stories ended? Upon the surface of the crystal are carved the sins of dark knights past… and yours are beyond counting. Beyond fathoming. Without end. Justice is an excuse. Nobility is a lie. Murder is murder!”
The words struck deep, because they were true. Vivienne stood silent, wavering. Something churned inside her, wanting out, but she had no argument in this moment against Myste’s words.
“And though we are most definitely not without fault, it is this cruel, indifferent world which has made murderers of us all,” Myste whispered. “But we need suffer no longer. I sought to make these broken souls whole, one by one, when in truth the solution was much more simple.” He smiled beatifically. “A world beyond pain and suffering and anguish and despair – a world beyond death! A world in which we never need bid farewell to our dearest friends.”
Vivienne snarled, snapped out of her wounded reverie. “From one impossible dream to another with you. How much aether will you consume to make this world of yours? How many beasts will you need to kill?”
Sidurgu laughed bitterly. “So your brilliant plan is to fill the world with simulacra of the dead, is it? And somehow that’s supposed to make everyone happy?” He pushed himself painfully to his feet. “Well, you’re right about one thing, I’ll grant you that. This world is brutal, uncaring, without logic or justice… No justice but that which we make for ourselves!” He flung a dramatic finger at Myste. “And I’ll be damned if I give it up so you can force your illusions upon us to assuage your guilt!”
Myste glared. “Did you not find comfort in your reunion with your master!? Even though you knew it was a lie, did it not help you to unburden your soul? To find a measure of peace in this madness!?” He calmed himself and shook his head. “I am not your enemy. Not then or now. I will not fight you. All I ask is that you leave me to do my duty.”
“Your ‘duty’…” Vivienne said. “You would seem to cause as much harm as you absolve.”
He turned his gaze on her and reached out towards her. “It’s never too late to turn back. You are still a good person. You can still be… a good person…”
“Not like this,” she said. “Tricks, illusions, lies are not for me.” She drew her sword from her back. “If I will ever be a good person it will be with the cold, hard truth.”
“So this is your answer…” Myste said sadly. “Maybe you cannot accept what needs to be done. But I can. Good-bye.” He gestured to Ystride’s shade, and she readied her staff.
Vivienne ducked her first Stone spell and shot back with Unmend before leaping towards her. The illusion flinched away, her expression unchanging from its cold haughtiness.
“Ours is the greatest lie of all,” Myste said, watching them. “We have to end it.”
Finally, Vivienne caught the illusion and cut it in half; bloodlessly it vanished.
Myste was already summoning more. “I remember every face. They are watching and waiting.” Temple Knights came rushing towards her, knights she had killed in defence of Rielle.
“I will not be killed by my own guilt!” Vivienne snarled, hacking at the spirits surrounding her. They were weak, but they were many; their weapons might not pierce her armour, but they still pierced her flesh and spirit. This was ludicrous. Was this figment of her soul actually trying to slay her and live a life of its own!? Like Fray had tried to do, though he had tried to claim her life and her identity. “I am not so pathetic!”
When she had whittled them down to nothing, she needed a breather, panting for air. And Myste was summoning yet again. “So many broken by this world, and then by you. So, so many…”
Gods. There stood Zephirin of the Heaven’s Ward. Ilberd. The Roegadyn Imperial officer who’d turned himself into a monster to face her in Doma Castle. In the growing darkness of night they looked more ominous than they had in life.
Ilberd? she wondered. She had never fought him; Achiyo had done that.
But you didn’t stop him, either, whispered her conscience.
“Woe betide the man who stands opposed to the Weapon of Light, for death will be his reward. Death for him and his kin and all that he holds dear,” Myste chanted. “Woe betide the man who stands with the Weapon of Light, for death will be his reward. Death for him and his kin and all that he holds dear. Like sands through the hourglass, everything we fight so desperately to protect slips through our fingers… and what remains… what remains…” His eyes bored into hers. “…Is us. Only us, and the memory of our sin. To walk this path is to suffer. To sacrifice…”
Something inside her was clawing its way out. She would not give in, would not relinquish control, but it called to her, whispering. Listen to my voice. Listen to our heartbeat…
And suddenly, she knew what she must do. “I tire of this charade,” she said, the ritualistic password she had been given, and reached into her own aether, prying loose that restless feeling and letting it out.
Abyssal Drain struck all three of the figures before her, and they dissolved into aether, streaming past her. “Serve… Save… Slave… Slay…” said a familiar voice behind her, and Vivienne smiled. “I’ve sins aplenty, aye, but regrets? Not so much. And if she wouldn’t listen to me, the embodiment of good sense and pragmatism, then what hope could you possibly have?”
Fray came to a stop at her side and pointed at Myste. “A house divided cannot stand, you know. This childish rebellion ends now.”
“What in the seven hells is this!?” Sidurgu exclaimed, reeling from astonishment as much as his wounds.
Fray snorted. “…A compromise, I suppose? Our dear friend here refused to let me take the reins, but I wasn’t about to stand idly by while that imbecile tries to do… whatever it was he was trying to do.” He looked up at Vivienne and she thought she saw a smile behind his helm. “No hard feelings about Whitebrim, eh? Promise not to stab you in the back. It’ll be just like old times.”
Deathbringer, Sidurgu’s sword, thudded into the ground next to Fray. “A dark knight needs a sword,” Sidurgu said. “Take mine.” Fray smiled again and wrapped his hand around the hilt.
Myste was shaking, wrapping his arms around himself like he was in a freezing wind. “No… No… This is wrong… This is all wrong…” He cried out desperately. “I offer you peace! Restitution! A chance to make amends! Do not think you are above it! Do not think that a reckoning will be postponed indefinitely!”
“When it comes, I shall welcome it with open arms…” Vivienne said. It would be all that she could do. Someday she would fight her hardest, and her best would not be good enough.
Fray finished it. “But today will not be the day, and you will not be the judge!”
Myste flung out his hands, and figures burst out of thin air – Temple Knights, Crystal Braves, Garlean soldiers, some of the Heaven’s Ward… Fray swung Deathbringer over his shoulder and observed them. “We deal with the dross, then the boy. A simple plan.”
“Ha,” Vivienne said. “Simple, but challenging. Story of my life.” They raised their swords in unison and plunged forwards.
“Look on the faces of your victims!” cried Myste, summoning again and again. “They are legion! Again and again and again you kill. Do you feel nothing!?”
“You know what I feel!” Vivienne shouted back. She hated talking about this. Hated admitting this. But hells, if Sidurgu and Rielle couldn’t be trusted with her most vulnerable feelings, who could? “Every death I’ve wrought carved a wound onto my heart!” And her pain wasn’t important, was irrelevant, didn’t matter – what good was feeling bad about killing when the killed were still dead? When she would continue to kill, because that was all she knew how to do to protect those she cared about? The Crystal Braves and Garleans were down, but the Temple Knights and a couple Heaven’s Ward were still swinging. Steel crashed on steel, glittering in the flickering light of spells blistering the dark night air.
“These scars and sins are ours to bear – not to deny!” Fray joined her. “But you, boy, I deny! Yours is the coward’s way!”
The last Heaven’s Ward fell, pierced by two greatswords. They turned to Myste, who was summoning again. “On a throne of bone she waits…”
Figures coalesced, and Vivienne stopped dead. “Etienne… Youriaix…” A pair of Duskwights in leather armour, leaders of the ‘mercenary’ band she had joined in her youth… and past them, faint figures in Adder yellow – her very first victims.
Fray was all defiance, even if she was not. “Dug deep for those magnificent bastards, didn’t you? But lest you forget, we bested them before!”
True. These were not real people, only shades and memories. Killing them again would not make them any more dead than they already were.
Besides, she’d had pretty good reasons to kill Etienne the first time, the lying creep. Black-purple-red flames flickered around her, and she hurled herself at the shade of her teenage ex, greatsword swinging towards his skull. He dodged with a smirk that set her blood boiling further, and counterattacked with his spear; she parried just in time.
Behind their battle, Fray was chewing through the Adders, evaporating spectral forms one after another. One of them struck his shoulder and he stumbled before whirling to bisect that one. But where was Youriaix…?
Vivienne cast defences on herself just before a sword raked across her back, sending her to her knees. She turned it into a roll and came up again facing both of them. “Sod off. You couldn’t kill me then, and there’s no way in all the hells that you will now!” Cronus blazed yellow as she roared, revving up for great looping swings that knocked both her opponents backwards. She was starting to get tired, her arms burning with the effort of hefting her greatsword’s mass, but rage boosted her. Youriaix was caught in an arc of yellow light that shattered his sword, his shield, his self.
“Why… Why won’t they answer…” Myste grasped his head on the edge of the field of battle, panting with exertion.
Fray cried triumphantly as he jumped to stand at her shoulder. “He’s grown too weak to summon more shades!”
“It’s about bloody time,” Vivienne growled. Together, they pointed their swords at Etienne, who backflipped away. Damn dragoons… but it wouldn’t save him. Together, they charged, coming down on him with symmetrical strokes that clove his aether asunder. The battlefield fell still, though her heart was still pounding with exertion and anger.
“The chorus falls silent… and the abyss…” Myste whispered.
“Reclaim the last of your aether!” Fray demanded. “Make us whole!”
Myste gasped and sobbed behind the shield he had thrown up around himself. “A reckoning… will not be…”
Vivienne swung and Cronus crashed through the shield, sending aether flying wildly before it was sucked back into her. Myste cowered before her, covering his head with his hands.
Vivienne lowered her sword. “Stop.”
Myste slumped on his knees, his breath coming in soft dry sobs. “Forgive me, forgive me… I ask, I beg, I pray, but it never comes… Again they go to join the multitude in the black oblivion of the abyss…”
Fray walked to him, but did not look down, gazing out towards the night-dark horizon. “Such is our lot. Such is the fate of all who are born – to suffer and to die. Do not seek forgiveness, for it will not ease the burden. It weighs as it should.” Vivienne nodded.
“But what of the lost?” Myste pleaded. “Do they not deserve to live again?”
“They do,” said a soft, clear voice, and Vivienne looked to see Rielle had gotten to her feet. “In our hearts and our souls and our memories. No one likes having to say good-bye. But it’s… it’s a part of life. That’s what makes the time we share together so precious… You can’t obsess over the mistakes of the past, or you’ll lose sight of the future. Of the people still with us, who need us more than ever.”
Sidurgu looked down on her with pride. “The greatest strength is born of the flame in the abyss…”
Fray pulled Myste from the ground and into an embrace. “Listen to my voice. Listen to our heartbeat. Listen… I forgive you. I forgive you. I forgive you…”
And something loosened inside Vivienne’s chest. The words might not mean anything. Her sins and her guilt would always remain. But the words eased the pain nonetheless.
“Thank you,” Myste said, and sighed. “That is… that is all I ever wanted…” He opened his eyes and looked up at Vivienne. “So… this is it. One last parting. One final farewell… after a fashion. In your darkest hour, in the blackest night… think of me… and I will be with you. Always. For where else could I go? Who else could I love but you?” He smiled with his eyes full of tears.
Vivienne reached out and hugged them both. Fray twitched, but it was too late, he was stuck. “Godsdammit. I love you both too. Now if my feelings would stop bloody manifesting outside my body and causing trouble on their own-”
Fray grunted. “If you would deign to listen to us in the first place, maybe we wouldn’t have to resort to this.”
She rolled her eyes, but it was with affection. “…Go say hello to Sidurgu and Rielle while you’ve the strength to be here.”
She let Fray go, and he walked towards them.
“And you – relax,” she said to Myste. “I can’t heal the whole world. But maybe… someday… I can heal myself.” She couldn’t undo her past. But she could lay it to rest. Myste smiled up at her and dissolved into aether in her arms.
Rielle hesitated, then ran forward and threw herself at Fray. “I’m glad to see you again. Even just for a moment. We miss you.”
“I know,” Fray said, stroking her hair soothingly. “I’m not the Fray you knew. But I’m always with Vivienne. What is left of him will watch over you as long as she is near you.”
“I figured as much,” Rielle said, smiling through tears. “I’m glad you ended up together.”
Fray looked up as Sidurgu approached. “I see you look as well as always.”
“Sod off,” Sidurgu retorted, but with a wry grin, and a hand held out for a handshake. “She’s right, we miss you. But Vivienne will take care of you.”
“Fray is the one trying to take care of me,” Vivienne put in. “A constant nag.”
“Ungrateful wretch,” Fray said, then dropped the teasing. “My strength here is passing. Be well, all of you.”
A moment more, and there were only sparks of aether, flickering in the night.
Rielle and Sidurgu returned to Ishgard the next day, a long trip via chocobo porter and airship, but Vivienne did not go with them or even follow them immediately. For one thing, she had to sort through everything that had just happened, because even if the guilty shadows that lurked in the corners of her heart had been appeased for a while, she still didn’t feel she understood it all. For another, she had been struck by the need to return home. Partly because she’d missed her annual visit to her parents.
So now she sat, with a bottle of wine, by a gnarled old oak, beneath which were many graves. She poured out a drink over two of them, then tipped the bottle up to drink from it herself. “Sorry I’m late. You’ll never guess what I got up to this year…”
“Try me,” said a wry voice from behind her.
She rolled her eyes. “Brat. …Well, guess, then.”
“You liberated Ala Mhigo and killed Prince Zenos,” her younger brother Alain guessed, coming to sit beside her and gesturing that she should share the bottle.
“Oh, all right, everyone knows that happened – though, to be precise, he killed himself. And Achiyo was the one facing off with him. No, it’s weirder. Magical shite.”
“Uhh… then I give up. Spill it.”
She told him, and the graves, of her adventures in the East, and the weirdness of Myste’s quest, and watched his eyes get bigger and bigger. “Don’t believe me?”
“Some. But you’re right. No one could guess that.” Alain drank from the bottle again, which they had traded back and forth, and was now in his possession again.
She snagged it back to finish the last drops. “Told you. What have you been up to?”
“Hardly anything interesting after a story like that…”
“That’s good. That means you’ve been safe.”
“I guess.” He still looked a bit disgruntled. “Hunting’s been good. We’ve been getting more traders through the village, a couple of them caused trouble a few months ago, but nothing that had lasting consequences.” He was hunching away from her a bit. He was hiding something.
Her eyes narrowed. “Out with it.”
“Bitch! …There’s a… I’ve been…”
“Well?”
“There’s a girl I like… and I think she likes me too…”
She nodded with the satisfaction of confirmed suspicions. “Good for you. About time.”
“Haven’t you been single for like fourteen years? Isn’t it about time for you?” he retorted, going on the attack.
She shrugged dismissively. “Exactly. If I haven’t found anyone by now, I’m not going to. No one wants to kiss the scary sinister woman.”
“But you’re a hero. Not just to us anymore, to everyone in Eorzea.”
“Not really,” she said. “They look at us and they see Achiyo – R’nyath – Rinala. The bright and shiny ones. They thank me for fighting, but that doesn’t make me a hero – or sexy.”
“Oh, come on. I’m sure there’s fellows out there who like getting their balls busted on a regular basis…” Alain thought. “Though I don’t know any.”
She shrugged again. “I’m resigned to it. Makes for fewer complications when I’m running around doing all this shite. But back to you. I want to know if I’m going to be an aunt, all right? I can never have too many reasons to fight.”
Alain cringed into himself; if his skintone had been lighter, he might have shown a blush. “We’re not at that stage yet.”
“Fair. Well, tell me about her. What’s she like?”
“Uh… Her name’s Soirelle, and she’s a leatherworker from Twinroot. I was selling the hides from my hunts to this one trader, but he turned out to be a cheat – one of the ones causing trouble – so I found out who he was selling his hides to after he got run out of town. And it wasn’t too far out of my way to just go give them to her. And… well…”
“That’s nice to hear,” she said sincerely. “I hope it goes well.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
“I won’t scare her off by visiting…”
“You’re not going to stay a bit?”
Vivienne hesitated. She’d gotten so used to being on the road, or living at the Rising Stones, that her home village didn’t feel like hers anymore. But it would be good to see everyone again. “Sure. I have some time. And I still have to figure out how I feel about the weird shite. Which you are not to tell anyone about, by the way.”
“No one would believe me anyway-”
“Not. A. Word.”
Alain held up his hands. “Okay, okay. Got it. But you better tell them about the East and Ala Mhigo.”
“That I can do.”
It was several days later that she returned to Ishgard. Sidurgu and Rielle were walking along the walls of the Brume, and saw her as she left the aetheryte plaza. Rielle jogged up to her with a wave. “Ah… you’re back. Welcome home…?”
Sidurgu gave her a stiffer wave. “You disappeared for a while. Not that I blame you.”
She nodded. “I needed some time to think on everything that happened in Gyr Abania.”
“I won’t pretend to know everything you’ve been through in your life,” Sidurgu said. “A man can never truly understand what’s in another’s heart… and probably not their own, for that matter…” He turned away awkwardly. “I’m pretty much rambling at this point, but… I suppose what I’m trying to say is that I’m grateful for everything you’ve done for me and Rielle. I like you. I respect you. And I’ll always be here for you, if you need me. We’re fellow walkers of the path, after all. And friends, I’d like to think.”
He held out a hand, and she took it to shake. “Likewise. I’ve appreciated your support through this quest. You’re one of the few who could understand. And I’ll be there for you when you need it.”
He offered a half smile, Rielle gave them a whole smile, and for a while they just walked together.
Rielle piped up. “I’ve been wondering… Myste appeared at the same time the soul crystal cracked, yes? But which happened first? And why then and there?”
“No idea,” Vivienne said. “I’ve decided it doesn’t matter. It’s not like to happen again. Though I’ve a small theory that it got out of hand because I also have the Echo.”
“Damned if I know,” Sidurgu agreed. “Does anyone truly understand how soul crystals work? What matters is that the crystal and Vivienne have been made whole.”
“You can tell?” she asked in surprise.
“A little,” he said. “You seem… more at ease, somehow. That said… ‘A heart bleeds, a man weeps, a soul burns. Thence comes the darkness, to consume.’ And few hearts have bled as much as hers…”
Vivienne almost told him to shut up. But after her battlefield confessions, seeing the literal ghosts of her past, she figured he had some right to comment on it.
“Speaking of bleeding, Sid reopened his wounds fighting in Gyr Abania,” Rielle said. “So he won’t be able to find work for a while.”
“I’ll cover you for a bit,” Vivienne said. “I should see what the Warriors of Light have been up to without me, but until you’re good to go again…” She’d just said she’d be there for them when they needed her. “I’m sorry you have nightmares.” And that Myste had used them against her. Vivienne was not surprised that Rielle had them, but she had not been around often enough to witness them personally.
Rielle nodded solemnly. “I know you both have them too. You don’t let it stop you. So I won’t either.”
“Good girl. But there’s nothing wrong in seeking help, either.” Vivienne looked out into the swirling mists of the Sea of Clouds. “I wish I’d talked to my brother, or my uncle about it more when I was younger. Maybe I’d be a bit less screwed up now.”
“I’m not like that,” Rielle said. Was that a bit of a blush? What for?
“Even so, I worry for Rielle.” Sidurgu said. “I cannot abandon her, yet I would not drag her ever into danger with me…”
“Train her as a Dark Knight,” Vivienne said. “Like us. She knows the darkness and the flame as well as we do. All she lacks is the martial skill.”
Sidurgu reeled backward. “Her, walk the path!? I… But she’s just a…”
“She won’t remain a child forever,” Vivienne said ruthlessly. “Give her the tools to control her fate.”
Sidurgu shook his head. “To have her be a party to what will come… …Her life is her own, to make with it what she will. If that is her desire… then we shall discuss it.”
“I don’t want to wear black,” Rielle said. “It’s too depressing. I have enough of that in my life.”
Vivienne smiled. “You do not have to wear black to be a Dark Knight. I choose to, and Sidurgu chooses to… But I think a white-armoured Dark Knight would be quite striking, don’t you?”
“I could be all right with that,” Rielle said.
Sidurgu folded his arms. “We’ll discuss it.”
“All right,” Rielle said. “You should get some rest too, Vivienne. Not all wounds are so obvious as Sid’s.”
Sidurgu threw up his hands. “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings – praise Halone! She’s right, though. No need to overdo it by running off to the next battle just yet. Part of me can’t help but think this was all a fever dream. And then I take a deep breath and feel the pain in my ribs…”
“It’s nice to dream of a world without pain and suffering,” Rielle said. “But the world is what it is, and dreams will only carry you so far. That’s why we’ve got swords.”
“Well said,” Vivienne said. “Come on. I’ll buy us dinner.”
A fourth wave of magitek armours marched towards them and Chuchupa wiped sweat from her brow. This was a right big fight on Sakazuki, between the Empire and the Confederates, not as big as the fight in Ala Mhigo of course, but hey that just meant more for her to do!
Er… maybe too much to do. “That’s a lotta armours!” she yelled. “Ye better heal me good, Red!”
“Not much I can do if they decide to use you like a football!” R’nyath called back, spinning his astrologian globe and throwing a Bole card at her. “So maybe don’t let them do that again!”
Gosh, that had just been the first magitek armour, because she’d been careless – Tansui had been poking it with his spear and everything, and she’d just run up with her axe and then next thing she’d known she’d been airborne. She’d been more calculating after that. “Gnarrr!” With an aether-charged roar, she swung her axe with a mighty stroke that clattered partly through the ankles of every magitek armour present. “They’re on me, I’ll take ’em away from Gosetsu! Follow me, boys!”
Past burning Confederate huts she led the armours, taking opportunistic swings to keep their interest, while the others hounded them. Tam bounced in and out like his lance was a magical pogo stick, Alisaie’s spells were blooming like giant deadly dandelions, and Yugiri flickered in and out of sight weaving between them. The armours were also spawning mini bits that shot little lasers and then exploded; Tansui was tracking them down as quickly as he could, aided by Alphinaud and his white carbuncle.
“There are too many. We need to take them all down at once, somehow – Alisaie!” Alphinaud cried.
“I’m on it!” Alisaie answered, and backflipped further away to begin casting something big.
“Keep them roughly between the stone, the tree, and that hut!” Alphinaud directed her.
“Good thing they’re dumb as rocks!” Chuchupa said, and began to move in a smaller circle around the indicated area. There was a faint shimmer on the ground – what the hells was that!? She had her answer when it flared up – into a burst of sparkling starry lights that washed over her, soothing her cuts and bruises. “Oh thank th’ Navigator – that was just ye an’ yer weird spells.”
“Uh, yeah? Have you not seen Earthly Star before?” R’nyath said. “I figured you could use it while you’re centred in Alisaie’s target area.”
“Hells no I never saw it before! Practically invisible until it explodes!”
“Stealth heals, hm,” Tam remarked, his white lance digging into an armour’s shoulder and popping the arm off – then ducking gracefully to avoid another armour’s backhand. Chuchupa flung a tomahawk at that one to make sure it wasn’t getting more interested in extruded Elezens than her, and-
She flung herself sideways just in time to avoid a massive laser coming her way. But there was still another one charging its laser, and now she was flopped across the dirt. She braced herself for pain and-
Nothing. She heard the laser hum, heard it impact something, heard someone grunt in exertion as she blocked it-
“Achiyo!” R’nyath cried. “Welcome to the party!”
“Thank you,” Achiyo said, standing before Chuchupa, shield out, a baby leas- Cover spell cast on Chuchupa – just in case she missed blocking, probably. “Are you all well?”
“For various definitions,” Alphinaud said. “Welcome back. Perhaps you and Chuchupa could split these armours between you? Keep them here until Alisaie finishes casting.”
“I got these ‘uns!” Chuchupa called, on her feet again, swinging her axe at two of the armours. “Ye can ‘ave those ‘uns, Princess!”
“I have them,” Achiyo said, hurling her shield at one and stabbing the other.
“Just a few more seconds…” Alisaie grunted. “Brace yourselves! Stars above, rain destruction upon mine enemies!”
The sky ignited and a cloud of small meteors came plunging from above, smashing through the armour with weighty whunks from each ball of flaming rock. Moments later, there was only one armour still moving, and that one was missing its legs, reaching out with one futile hand to try and laser blast Chuchupa.
Yugiri appeared on its back, her blades shredding the circuitry in its neck, and it spasmed and flopped limp to the dirt.
“Yarrr!” Chuchupa yelled in triumph. “Awesome spell, Ali!”
“Thank you,” Alisaie said, panting. “It takes quite a bit of concentration. Thank you for making sure I was uninterrupted.”
Chuchupa looked around. Burning wreckage of magitek, burning wreckage of huts, the Imperial airship flying away in a hurry, Achiyo’s green chocobo sitting calmly nearby preening a wing, many Imperial bodies… and a bunch of Confederate ones too. Too bad about them, but they would’ve been much worse off if there hadn’t been a bunch of Scions there to deal with the armours for them. She considered it a pretty solid victory and would have done more pirate yelling, but some of the Confederates might consider that in poor taste. They had lost friends and crewmates. Still, maybe later they’d buy her drinks.
“Good timin’,” she said to Achiyo instead. “Had a good trip?”
Achiyo nodded. “I am grateful that I was able to go. It was hardly earthshaking… but it was important to me.” She petted her chocobo’s beak, and it stretched with a kweh before Teleporting back to its stable.
“Hey, and that’s what’s important,” R’nyath said, coming up after having thrown out some mass heals at the surviving Confederates. “I hope you’ll tell us after we deal with Gosetsu and… that lady.”
Yugiri had already run to greet the old Roegadyn. “Gosetsu! Thank the heavens!”
Gosetsu, sitting exhausted on the ground, smiled at them, his eyes crinkling up fondly. “Yugiri, my friends… The kami were kind to guide your steps this way.” The woman behind him, in a worn old kimono and straw hat just like Achiyo had worn to leave Kugane, shrank behind him nervously, and he turned to her with an encouraging look. “Do not be afraid, Tsuyu. These people are my friends.”
“Friends…?” said the woman, looking them over and getting a mixed reaction. Yugiri, Alphinaud, and Alisaie glared. Tam smiled faintly with no interest at all. Chuchupa was not even paying attention, fiddling with her bandanna. Achiyo gave her a blank look. Only R’nyath smiled in a friendly way.
She looked exactly like Yotsuyu, with the long black hair, even if it was rough from travel, the pale pampered skin, even if it was a little sunburned right now, the golden eyes, even if they had never held an expression this meek in the few times Achiyo had seen her before. And at their looks, her face fell further and she stepped back behind Gosetsu.
Tansui of the Confederates walked up, and Chuchupa gave him a thumbs-up. “It’s over. The Imperials are retreating. I suppose we have you to thank for that. But they never would have come here were it not for her.” He gave Yotsuyu a very dark look. “I had a bad feeling the moment your samurai friend arrived with that woman in tow.”
“Is it truly her?” R’nyath said. “What’s going on?”
“Forgive me, but at the risk of souring the mood, I believe you owe us an explanation,” Alphinaud said. “You may start by telling us what happened at Doma Castle.”
Gosetsu nodded. “Of course. I’ll not begrudge you that. As you know, we were trapped inside the keep when it collapsed. But even as the roof crumbled above us, so too did the floor below. We were swept out into the One River, where we would surely have drowned had a stout wooden door not chanced to float by, offering us a raft of sorts. Exhausted, we drifted out to sea, at the mercy of the tides… which saw fit to dispense us on a desert island.”
“She was with you the entire time?” Alphinaud asked.
“Aye,” Gosetsu said. “‘Twas her kimono which saved her from Hien’s blade, believe it or not. Some Garlean witchcraft in the weave. But it offered precious little protection against the fall. Though she survived, she awoke bereft of all her memories, and speaking like a child.”
Achiyo looked at Yotsuyu, who was largely looking at the ground, the brim of her hat covering her eyes. How much comprehension would she see if she looked into them? If she had been truly bereft of her memory, how did she feel about them all talking of her as if she were not there, of things she didn’t know?
“A trick, surely?” Yugiri said.
“That was my first thought, aye,” Gosetsu said. “And I contemplated cutting her down and being done with it. Contemplated it long and hard… Yet the kami saw fit to deliver us from certain death. ‘Twas their will that we survive. Both of us. Together. And together we shall go before our master. He shall be the one to judge.”
“Judge what…?” Yugiri said with disgust.
“She’s your prisoner, old man,” Tansui growled. “Do with her as you will. Call her ‘Tsuyu’ or whatever else tickles your fancy.”
Gosetsu gave him a sharp look. “‘Twas a name given out of necessity whilst on the road. Nothing more.”
Tansui shrugged. “As you say. But remember this: Our people suffered much at that woman’s hands. When the time comes, I trust you won’t let emotion blind you to what needs to be done.”
“You have my word,” Gosetsu said gravely.
Tansui sighed and waved to them all. “Well, I must be going – I’ve an unholy mess to clean up. You should be on your way too, before the Imperials decide to take another tilt. Oh… and we’ll overlook the tithe this once. You’re welcome.”
Dismissed, they headed down the steep side of the island to the docks. “It is good to see you again, Gosetsu,” Achiyo said. “We mourned you as dead.”
“Ah, I have no doubt you did. I was quite astonished to find myself alive, to be sure!” the old samurai said. He seemed quite weak, walking slower than she remembered, and his hands shook slightly.
Well, he must have been some moons in the wilderness. “You have endured much. We shall ensure your swift recovery.” Aymeric would be happy that her mission had been successful. But now there was this question, this mystery, of Yotsuyu.
As they waited at the docks for Soroban’s little ship to arrive, Yotsuyu gave them all a tentative wave. “Um… Greetings?”
Alisaie walked up to her with narrowed eyes. “So you’ve lost your memory. That’s fine. But I want you to know something. I won’t be taking my eyes off you. Not for a moment.”
Yotsuyu blinked in incomprehension, and turned to Gosetsu. “These people are strange. Are you sure they’re your friends?”
He gave her a reassuring smile. “I am. They may behave… strangely, but I trust them with my life. You have naught to fear.”
Yotsuyu gave them a more doubtful look. “All right, if you say so.”
Achiyo knew she should be suspicious herself. But if Yotsuyu truly was… ‘reformed’, in a way, she must also give her a chance. “Your name is Tsuyu, yes?” A stiff question, but she was trying to be friendly. Friendly to the woman who had held Doma by the throat and laughed…
“Yes,” …Tsuyu said, looking to her with a pitifully eager look. “I am Tsuyu. And you are?”
“I am Achiyo,” she said. “Achiyo Kensaki. You truly do not remember your past?”
“Ye’re seriously gonna try?” Chuchupa said.
“It’s worth a shot,” R’nyath said. “I support this.”
Tsuyu shook her head. “No… Nothing from before Gosetsu brought us to Kugane. They have the most delicious dango! Er, but… why do you ask so? Have we met?”
For a moment Achiyo hesitated… then smiled at her. She would take a chance. “No. It is a pleasure to meet you, Tsuyu.” She gave Tsuyu a polite bow.
Tsuyu copied her, but it was without the grace that she had once had. “Do you like dango?” she asked. “It’s the most delicious thing in the world! I can’t get enough.”
Achiyo had to chuckle. “I do. Which kind is your favourite?”
“I love the pink and white and green ones, they are so pretty!” The hanami dango – it was a bit out of season for them, they must have been selling in Kugane for tourists…
“Oh, hey, Soroban,” Tam said as the Kojin brought his ship skillfully to the dockside. “Look, I appreciated the lift to Sakazuki, but I’m going to go on ahead now, all right?”
“Greetings!” Soroban said. “Perfectly all right. That simply means more room for your other friends!”
“Ta,” Tam said, and Teleported.
“Ah, I should have asked him to explain to Lord Hien…” Yugiri said.
“I’m sure he will,” Alphinaud said. “If he has any interest, Tam is quite helpful. But Gosetsu, we have a gift for you.”
“Oh? What is… Oh!” Gosetsu received the katana with an emotional smile. “A samurai’s blade is his soul, and no words will suffice to express my gratitude for reuniting me with mine.”
“‘Tis no trouble at all,” Alphinaud said graciously. “We are grateful to you for everything you have done during the uprising, and the hardships you have endured since then. ‘Tis only right that you have your own sword again.”
“Where did you find it?” Achiyo had to ask, as they climbed on board and made themselves comfortable. “If I may ask.”
“In a pawn shop,” R’nyath whispered to her. “I think Tataru is mad that he didn’t try and haggle.”
“Oh dear,” she whispered back. If Tataru was upset about financial matters, then it was grave indeed. Normally the receptionist/treasurer simply went about her business putting a cheerful face on things.
“Oh you know who else I saw in Kugane?” R’nyath went on in a normal tone, as the ship began to move across the sun-sparkling waters. “Nashu.”
“Nashu…” Achiyo blinked. And opened her eyes wide. “Not Nashu Mhakaracca? Hildibrand’s assistant? What of Hildibrand?” Last she’d seen, he’d been hurtling through the sky. Which apparently he did on a regular basis. The man was indestructible.
“No word, apparently,” R’nyath said, grinning. “But where there’s smoke, there’s fire… and Nashu’s bombs, I suppose. He can’t be too far away. She’s looking for him, of course.”
“Hope she’ll be all right on her own in Kugane,” Chuchupa said. “I’ve noted they got a bit of a thing for Miqo’te.” Achiyo tried not to choke – the thoughts she’d had about R’nyath’s love life rising once more to the front of her mind.
R’nyath snorted. “Wouldn’t be anything new. Heck, have you seen the dancers in Ul’dah? The doxies in Limsa? Miqo’te getting objectified is about as old as Miqo’te are. And honestly, we are damn cute. She’ll be fine. But if nothing else crazy comes up, I was thinking of going back to help her out. We just found one missing person, why not another?”
“Yes…” Achiyo said. “As long as I do not need to be involved. Unless you desperately need me.”
“I’ll come!” Chuchupa volunteered. “Too bad Vivi ain’t here. She’d hate it.”
“Hildibrand Manderville, hm?” Alphinaud said. “I have heard much of him… though most of it from you. I am more familiar with his father.”
“I think you’d get along quite well,” R’nyath said, and added wickedly, “especially after that noise you made yeeting yourself into the water to get to Sakazuki.”
Alphinaud immediately went scarlet as Alisaie and Chuchupa snickered. “How dare- It was simply a noise of exertion, that’s all!”
Achiyo looked back and forth between them. “He made an odd noise?”
“‘Yeeouiye‘!” R’nyath said, and Alphinaud buried his face in his hands as Alisaie and Chuchupa laughed even harder. Even Yugiri chuckled, and Tsuyu was looking much more relaxed to see them all bantering.
“I am certainly glad you’ve finally learned to swim, dear brother,” Alisaie said. “Though when you found time to practise such a thing, I’m sure I don’t know.”
“It’s not like I’ve come to enjoy it,” Alphinaud muttered, still hidden from view.
Achiyo put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “You swam from the Ruby Price to Sakazuki? And still had the strength to fight after? I am proud of you. That is no small feat, especially for one who dislikes swimming.” Though all others teased him, she would be supportive and encouraging.
“Tam couldn’t do it,” Chuchupa put in, happy enough to make fun of someone else too.
“Thank you,” Alphinaud mumbled, but came back out of his shell slightly.
“Though, speaking of blades…” Achiyo said, and shifted her seat until she was next to Gosetsu. “Gosetsu-dono, I would like to show you something.”
“I should be glad to see it, Achiyo-dono! What do you have?”
She pulled out her father’s katana. “This was my father’s sword.”
Gosetsu took it and half-drew it, though she noticed the tremor in his hands stronger now. “A fine blade. It has been well-kept. Your father must have been a fine samurai.”
“I do not know, but I would like to think so,” she said. “Gosetsu-dono, would you teach me to wield such a blade? I have not really tried before.”
He passed it back to her, shaking his head. “I am honoured that you would ask such a thing of me, but I am not able to teach right now. Not even to instruct in the basics. But Lord Hien will surely have a skilled retainer who may show you.”
It had been worth a try. “Thank you anyway.”
“Oh right, so tell us how you got it!” R’nyath demanded, and she acquiesced for the remainder of the voyage.
Soroban dropped them off at the beach near Isari, but not too near. Considering that the first time the Scions had even seen Yotsuyu was when she was murdering fishermen in that village, they agreed it would be an obvious choice to steer clear of it.
As Yugiri, R’nyath, and Chuchupa helped Gosetsu and Tsuyu to start up the long path that would lead them to Doma, Soroban spoke to Alphinaud and Achiyo. “Dear Scions, when you are not otherwise occupied, I would speak with you about my next business venture. It promises to be extremely lucrative, and I do not say so lightly. After the prodigious sum spent acquiring a certain sword, it would present a fine opportunity to refill the Scions’ coffers and restore the smile to Mistress Tataru’s face!”
Alphinaud made a careless face. “Oh, come along – Tataru was overreacting. How much could a single katana possibly cost?”
“Far more than you think, plainly,” Alisaie told him.
Achiyo looked in Gosetsu’s distant direction. “A blade like Gosetsu’s is worth a fortune. Enough to buy a house and furnish it…” A moderately well-to-do Doman house, anyway.
“Which you would know had you bothered to check the price,” Alisaie added scathingly.
Alphinaud blanched. “What? I-I had no idea…”
“You did not check at all?” Achiyo asked, aghast. R’nyath had said he didn’t haggle, but not to check at all!? Truly, the Leveilleurs were wealthy for Alphinaud to not even consider such a thing. He had done similar things before, but never this egregiously… And here she was, double-checking the price of everything, though she was not without means now herself. The only time in her life she had ever felt able to shamelessly splurge was buying her kimono to show Aymeric. Even Emmanellain had had trouble taking her clothes shopping in Ishgard.
Alphinaud turned to her, shamefaced and crimson. “Th-this business venture of Soroban’s, you will give it fair hearing, I trust? He has been good to us, after all! As for me, I… I think I shall look into drawing upon my personal funds…”
She put a hand on his shoulder. “You mean well – it was a kind gesture. I suppose you couldn’t have known.”
“But he should have found out,” Alisaie interrupted. “How hard would it have been to just ask?”
Achiyo shrugged. “In high-end shops, asking the price is as good as admitting that one cannot afford anyway. So in that sense Alphinaud was not wrong to do as he did… but, Soroban, I should be happy to discuss your venture with the others. You believe there might be cause for combat?”
“That is part of it, yes! I am glad you have an interest. I wish you well on your journey, and hope to see you again in Kugane soon!” The Kojin waved and set his sail again.
Alphinaud set off up the trail, muttering to himself. “I confess, I have never had much cause to consider the state of my personal finances… until now. Confound it…”
“He’s absolutely mortified, isn’t he!” Alisaie said to Achiyo with a certain measure of glee. “Well, maybe he’ll think twice before making his next grand gesture. If he ever missed an opportunity to show me how much more mature and responsible he is, I’d sympathize. I mean, I do, to a point – but that doesn’t mean I’m about to let him forget this.”
“Is that a sibling thing?” Achiyo asked solemnly.
“Of course,” Alisaie answered. “Ah, I forgot – you have brothers now yourself. Do you not tease them? Is Lord Artoirel too intimidating for that?”
“A little,” Achiyo said, thinking back to Emmanellain’s latest tomfoolery. He was much improved, under the responsibility of running Camp Dragonhead… and he was also still Emmanellain. She could only imagine what he’d been like at Alphinaud’s age. “They have not give me quite so much cause to.”
“From a hound at his throat, to a puppy at his heel,” Hien mused, watching Tsuyu and Gosetsu follow Yugiri deeper into the House of the Fierce. “If this is an act, it is a remarkable performance.”
“I am not an excellent judge of character,” Achiyo said. “I have been injured, cheated, or betrayed before, because I take people to be what they seem. Yet I cannot help but think… She spoke so passionately of her hatred for Doma and her people, when we confronted her in the castle. I do not think she could keep up a façade so long, even thinking of what she stood to gain.”
Hien gave her a rueful smile. “You may be right on that at least. But to happier matters. Thank you for delivering Gosetsu back to us in one piece. We are lucky indeed to have friends who would journey to the other side of the world to help us – and repeatedly, at that.”
She bowed to him, but not deeply. They were friends. “It is our pleasure. We were all upset at his loss. My fiancé sent with me his sincere wishes that Gosetsu be found safe and sound – and you are officially invited to the wedding, should you not be too busy.”
Hien laughed. “You make it sound like a mere trifle, that I might somehow conceivably decide to work through your wedding celebrations! No, Achiyo, tell me the date, and unless we are actively at war again, I shall be in attendance.”
“You are of the Eorzean Alliance now,” she said seriously. “If you are at war, we shall all be at war – and the wedding postponed, I should think.”
“Let us pray to the kami that such shall not come to pass!” Hien said heartily. “Come, let me show you around. We have already made such improvements…”
“One invitation down, five hunnerd more to go,” Chuchupa muttered under her breath.
“I don’t think Achiyo’s friends with five hundred people,” R’nyath said. “Tam, now… But the world would end before he got married.”
“Don’t say that too loudly,” Tam said, strolling along at the back of the group. “Or the world will end just to spite both of us.”
They had not gotten far before Gosetsu and Yugiri returned, wearing worried looks. The guard captain Hien had instructed to be placed in charge of Yotsuyu was missing. Tsuyu was now under other guard, but this man’s disappearance put everyone on alert. The Scions volunteered to join in the search, though Achiyo did not remember his face.
He was found hyperventilating some way outside the House of the Fierce, by Yugiri, and Gosetsu, and Achiyo. He swallowed and faced them, bowing carefully. “Lady Yugiri. Lord Gosetsu. Forgive me my abrupt disappearance.”
“You have your reasons, I am sure,” Gosetsu said, trying to speak kindly. “Will you not share them?”
Jifuya swallowed again. “I was… I was her master. When she was yet a courtesan. She… worked in my establishment.”
He looked away, eyes haunted. “Her father was a regular client of mine. One day, quite without preamble, he offered to sell her to me. ‘She may be no maiden,” he said, “but she has some use left in her.’ He sold her short. When I first beheld her, I was struck by her beauty. And yet, behind her eyes, there was… an emptiness. ‘Twas as if she had given up on life. She seemed more a doll than a woman. It was no profession for her, but I knew she would be popular. And so it proved. Men flocked to drown themselves in that cold, bottomless gaze.”
He looked at them again, anguish etching lines into his face. “The rest you know. She became an imperial informant, and for her loyal service won the office of acting viceroy.”
“…While you came to serve the Liberation Front,” Gosetsu finished.
“Joining the Front was meant to be my atonement,” Jifuya said. “But the truth is… The truth is, I am a coward whose only thought was to escape her wrath. Then as now.”
Achiyo found her heart racing, though she could not show it. Was that his only regret at running an okiya, was that one of his acquisitions had come to be in a place to take revenge on him? That did not speak well of his treatment of her. As someone who had escaped that fate, Achiyo was not very sympathetic to him. Well could she imagine her own eyes filling with emptiness, if that were the only life she knew or could look forward to. Once more she gave thanks to Percival for saving her.
But Hien trusted this man. Perhaps he was a better soldier than okiya master.
She also remembered Yotsuyu’s confessions in Doma Castle. If Achiyo were in such a position, and found the opportunity to seize her own future… would she have sought vengeance and cruelty?
Such thoughts occupied her uselessly on the walk back to the House. Her life had not been the same, had been as different as it was possible to be. She would never be able to determine an answer to such an abstract question. Aymeric would embrace her and tell her to think no more on it… and he was probably right.
She put it out of her mind just as she reached Hien, and saw him and Alphinaud looking concerned. What now?
An Imperial airship was come to the old fortress of Castrum Fluminis, and had sent up a white smoke signal – meaning an ambassador wished to speak peaceably. Hien was willing to indulge them, and Yugiri, Achiyo, and Tam went with him. The larger ship in due time disgorged a small ship, which touched down at the edge of the river, and three people emerged: an Elezen Imperial officer, in standard uniform, a Garlean Imperial officer likewise, and… a handsome young Hyuran man in a white edition of the Doman Imperial officer uniform. The two others had pistols, but the young man in white was armed apparently only with a katana.
He beamed to see them. “Well! That we should be received by the lord of Doma himself!”
Hien raised an eyebrow. “Welcome to Doma, my lord…?”
The young man somehow made a smooth fluster. “Ah, where are my manners? I am Asahi sas Brutus, ambassador plenipotentiary of Garlemald.”
Yugiri leaned over to whisper in Hien’s ear. “He is heir to the Naeuri clan… and Yotsuyu’s stepbrother.”
Achiyo tried not to react, but feared her eyes betrayed her. Tam, of course, didn’t move. Hien raised the other eyebrow.
Somehow Asahi had heard her. “It seems I need not introduce myself – not in the presence of the famed Yugiri Mistwalker. Your skills as a shinobi are known far and wide, my lady.”
He made a rueful face. “It is true – the former acting viceroy is my sister. Yet, bonds of kinship aside, we have precious little in common. As will soon become plain, I come not to sow strife, but to end it. I am of the Populares, a collective which represents the interests of the common man. Long have we labored to bring about reform to the Empire’s provincial policy. Happily for us, our master acknowledges the need for change. Indeed, His Radiance, Emperor Varis zos Galvus personally sanctioned this mission, granting me the authority to speak with his voice. To negotiate peace with Doma.”
Hien smiled serenely, giving away nothing. “Well then, we have much to discuss. Will you accompany me to my hall?”
“Gladly, my lord!” Asahi declared, and fell in step behind them, his beaming smile never wavering.