Whisper
Episode One: Highroad
The console inhales and lets out a whisper.
"Does immortality intrigue you?"
"Spending an entire lifetime learning from failure, endless rabbit holes of defeat and triumph. Mistakes, changing their tune after a time, dancing about our projects and interpersonal relationships. Dabbling in different poses, unabashedly teasing us with their impetuous nature."
Dekklan places a hand on the monitor and records the final piece of data he needs for a funding proposal. His wife, and research partner, Kaia, places her hand over his as if to say, its finally over.
Administrative bodies impose new, egalitarian measures for research candidates in light of developments in pyrefly technology. Al Bhed researchers hack the atomic lattice of these pockets of energy. The results polarize Spira's scientific community.
"Mistakes become victories unto themselves. They tell us what doesn't work. Gut a mistake and you're bound to find an invaluable lesson."
Kaia whispers prayer under her breath. One of the few she remembers from a time in Yevon. Old habits surface when people feel most vulnerable to chance. When all those variables flying about the universe collude to ruin satisfaction.
One too many people. One too many days gone to waste. One too many entries in a ledger.
Today she prays for safe travel. Leaving a place you love is always difficult, she knows. Leaving Kilika is something she lives with everyday.
Sin's inaugural assault bends the island nation in two.
"A lifetime teaches the mind plenty. Mistakes grow smaller, appear less often until, eventually, we die a conceptual death."
"The swirling mass of electrons guiding our behavior become more binary. Decisions require less thought, they become more automatic. The brain exchanges awareness for comfort. Days fly by in the blink of an eye. Weeks turn into months. Months to years. Eventually the sorrows of yesterday become passing glances."
Today is different, Kaia says to herself. Dekklan knows this too. Today they embark on a journey that may cement their place in Spira's history.
Years prior, Dekklan begins his endeavors on the shoulders of one Al Bhed researcher, Maurok. The man is a visionary in the truest sense. His inventions play a hand in razing the city of Zanarkand during the Machina War.
"Something strange happens after the second century or so. Life takes on different shape. Fears multiply in number and potency. Mountains of thought engulf our younger selves. A low hum replaces the sound of the universe. A dismal, latent afterthought of the great beyond."
"Does immortality intrigue you?"
Sin's presence stunts Spira's digital age.
Maurok's writings are so valuable that Yevon seals them away for almost a millennia. Only a handful are left in the wild.
"Sin, now there's a concept."
"Imagine taking the world's transgression, bottling it up and selling it to the masses wholesale. That's what Sin is."
"Yevon calls it punishment for past mistakes but this is from the lens of their belief. Sin is a just reward for their forefathers' primal stupidity. An ultimate mistake."
"Why do they seek to fill minds with oceans of misguided principles?"
"Sometimes I feel as though…"
Yevon denounces rational explanations for natural phenomena. For hundreds of years the religious body destroys fledgling research operations in the name of withholding scientific knowledge. So much so that prime candidates for geographic exile, the Al Bhed, are cast from communities and told to make haste for the Sanubia Desert. There, they wander for decades before constructing what they now call Home.
"...Spira's people clamor for meaning in a universe with so little."
"When I look to the sun and stars I see elemental incubators. When a Yevoner looks to the sun and stars they see love and grace."
"Love? Grace?"
"Why do we confine ourselves to these thought prisons? Why can't Yevoners take one hard look around them and see the true nature of things?"
"I spend my life studying those 'little balls of light' and I can assure you they are nothing more than..."
The existence of Sin is a direct result of the Pyrefly Effect. Maurok coins the term in his seminal work, a piece that cements his place in the field of Pyrefly Dynamics.
Pyreflies are a natural phenomena that occur when electromagnetic currents propagate through natural environments. These channels coalesce into points of energy that travel along finite, predictable trajectories.
After the Machina War, when most of Spira shies away from technological study, the Al Bhed find refuge in it. Almost as a means of compensating for their discounted status in Spira's social hierarchy. To this day, pyrefly research allows them to create many of the technologies Spirans now see as commonplace. Spheres, for instance, allow users to record audio and visual experiences on a whim. One of the most powerful properties of pyreflies is their receptivity to different forms of energy. Upon exposure to extreme heat and pressure, large pyrefly concentrations take on solid form.
"...dogs in the fight for creation."
"Those orbs of light are terrific fuel for innovation. They give us the technological backbone for spheres, hydrodynamics, and weaponry."
"Factories don't run on prayer you know."
No more than a decade after High Summoner Braska ushers in a time of peace, Yevon takes a stab at expunging the world of Sin. The super weapon their team of researchers concoct is terrible in power. Add to this a military presence unlike any other and Sin's days appear to be numbered. Operation Mi'hen is the project Yevon devises.
The Mi'hen Highroad cuts southern Spira in half. The western Highroad is a common tourist destination, a relatively safe passage that attracts people from all over. The eastern Highroad offers a much more visceral experience. According to Maurok, this difference in degree is due to each region's concentration of pyreflies.
"This is why Farplane Rock intrigues me so."
"The Al Bhed watch the stars. For ages, we trace lines in its organic tapestry."
"Farplane Rock has long history with Spira. Shards from the asteroid's surface carry energy signatures present in the Farplane, final resting place of the dead."
Pyreflies may actually be responsible for facilitating the genesis and sustenance of electric currents in living systems.
For instance, the moment an organism's heart stops beating, low amperage currents present in the body's living tissue decrease in strength. Following motor death, pyreflies assume their recognizable form, appearing as orbs of light leaving the vessel.
The observable wavelengths which pyreflies assume in these circumstances manipulate free-form light particles that exist in abundance during the day. Sparse concentrations of these free-form bodies exhibit similar qualities as well. Observable visions are not uncommon.
"The findings make it clear that this asteroid may house the ingredients necessary for life."
"Does its orbit touch other life-bearing planets?"
Before science intervenes, physicians associate these phenomena with mental illnesses such as dementia and schizophrenia but further research finds that not only are these visions a direct result of pyreflies affecting observable light signatures but, via the Pyrefly Effect, these entities seem to exhibit an almost social cohesiveness.
Pyreflies can work together to affect larger fields of particles. A population of organisms can share a collective vision.
"Despite observable difficulty, opportunity presents itself in the most surprising ways."
Since atomic particles are so small, they can weave in and out of solids and liquids with ease. Pyreflies are fundamentally atomic in nature so they can exhibit similar tropes in their behavior - hence their presence in and around living systems.
To add to this, groups of pyreflies have the ability to mimic the atomic arrangements they observe. Like memorizing the lines of a poem or learning information from a book.
This means that a group of synchronized pyreflies can pass through a living system, say a brain, and mimic the electron fields present in this structure. Once these behaviors are learned, so to speak, the very same behavior can be used to affect free-form light particles outside the living body. Ideas native to the mind can be brought to life for brief instances, sometimes prolonged periods, depending on how open the associated field is to manipulation. This is the conceptual basis to many of the collective visions people observe in the Farplane.
Dekklan spends almost a decade making sense of Maurok's work. After the Machina War, Yevon scatters Maurok's journals and encyclopedic entries about Spira in an attempt to curtail intellectual movements. It is a maze trying to find out just how much the man discovers in his short stint with life.
On the way, Dekklan and Kaia rehearse their presentation. The man responsible for administering research funding awaits their proposal. One of the few benefits of Operation Mi'hen is Yevon's generous endowment to the field of science.
"Eyes, psychotic. Hair, bizarre."
Mega weapons do not build themselves.
"Simply pathological."
Dekklan makes it clear to Kaia that he should do most of the talking, "these Yevoners are insane. It's best we take them seriously. Follow their rules, I mean. One wrong move and its the Via Purifico."
Guadosalam is a fitting meeting place in two respects: in one regard it is the home of the Farplane, the single largest concentration of pyreflies in all of Spira. And in another regard, it is the home of Operation Mi'hen's Head Coordinator, a bridge between the Al Bhed and Yevon.
"Good work, Maurok," Seymour says as he lays the journal to rest. His audience waits for a response to their work. Life passing before their eyes. An entire decade boiling down to the next few moments.
Dekklan stares, awestruck, with prying eyes. Was this man mocking the great Maurok? It is then he realizes Seymour is staring through him. There is something Dekklan cannot see without turning around.
The makeshift conference room reflects Guado sentiment toward the Al Bhed. Operation Mi'hen is Yevon's first attempt at rescinding these poor relations. The Guado return the favor by offering Spira's top research candidate a re-purposed broom closet in which to present his decade long struggles.
Dekklan's seat, opposite Seymour, has his back to the entry way - he cannot see who leaves and enters the room. Kaia sits at his side, her eyes leering to the impending anomaly behind him. Dekklan slowly turns. The resultant emotion is so sudden it extinguishes his anxiety. There, standing in traditional garb, is Maurok. A man commanding so much respect, Yevon itself acknowledges his legacy. A man whose work Dekklan spends his entire adult life trying to understand.
"He is here. But how?"
"With all due respect, thousands of people are responsible for the work. Too many souls to count," These words leave Maurok's lips with resolve, as though he knows them by heart.
"Your work is written all over it," Seymour responds quickly, his sly nature morphing into dialogue, "what brings you here?"
"Spira's finest make an appearance in Guadosalam and the corporate dining hall sees no use. It appears your better judgement prevails," Maurok responds with a sarcastic tonality.
"Spira's finest, yes. Yevon's finest, not quite. Operation Mi'hen has yet to prove its efficacy. Until then, things will continue as normal." As Seymour says this, he rises from his seat. The man is tall, lanky beyond belief. After making his way past Dekklan and Kaia's eternal astonishment, he squeezes past Maurok in the now agape entry way, dropping one last nugget of wisdom:
"You're a good team, you and your wife. Maurok's presence shouldn't surprise you. The man has a mind Spira needs. He will show you the ropes I'm sure. Your future research depends on it," his voice gaining speed, "I must admit, of the hundreds of research proposals that benefit from Yevon's funding, this one does show the most promise. Keep up the good work and it won't be your heads rolling down Bevelle's stone steps."
Spira's Maester leaves the meeting with a cohort of guards at his behest.
"It dawns on me that what I am observing has no place in our reality. It does not seem to be alive or dead. Like a suspended animation."
"It is as though I am looking at a mirror from someone else's perspective. The vision is brief, but its effect on my psyche is irreversible."
Upon Seymour's exit, Dekklan suppresses the desire to ask Maurok the plethora of questions swirling around his head. Immediately, Maurok asks Kaia and Dekklan to follow him to his laboratory. Along the way, he describes his new work with the same passion and vigor present in his writings.
"I spend weeks considering the consequences of the vision. Why do the pyreflies behave this way? Why do they present me visions of people I have never seen before?"
"The vision isn't a mental projection from someone in the adjacent room, an electro-retardant lines the research laboratory walls. Nothing short of a laser beam is getting through them in one piece. No other energy signature consistent with life is present within the room either, and I am in full garb during all experimental procedures, thoughts in my head safe from the Pyrefly Effect."
"The vision sends me down a line of thought few men entertain. Is it possible that..."
Guadosalam presents itself as a maze. The organic materials the Guado use to construct their subterranean burrows offer a temperate clime between the frozen wastes of Macalania and the impossible Sanubia Desert. Maurok's laboratory hangs out of a wall cleft. Two tree trunks crossing intermittently offer a makeshift passage way.
Upon entry, the laboratory appears bleak. A single piece of equipment hangs aloft from the ceiling in the center of a refurbished dining hall. It seems the Guado are fond of re-purposing domestic arrangements in the name of science.
Dekklan's excitement withers away at the surprising normalcy. He expects spectacle but receives nothing more than a center console, no different than the ones present in his own lab.
They follow Maurok into the rectangular room, three chairs surround a structure in the middle, each in front of a screen no larger than those one would find in conventional airship hangars. Normal uses include logistical operations, weapons deployment and simulation testing.
"...the pyreflies in the test chamber are reacting to some sort of system-wide development?"
"Perhaps these developments are responsible for some of the more inexplicable events I've been observing as of late. The flickering of gas giants, brain aneurisms, collective visions..."
Maurok finally speaks, "I'm glad you could make it here tonight. Our work is slow but the tiny milestones turn into larger ones after a time. I'll begin by explaining why Yevon is entertaining your proposal."
"Is it possible that we are living in a reflection of something bigger, more substantial, more real? What compels the universe's curator to allow this experiment to continue? Is this a controlled culture of some kind? Some sort of sick..."
"By we, I mean us. You, me, Kaia, other Al Bhed researchers, so on so forth. We all work very hard in specific fields of scientific inquiry but, for what?"
Maurok speaks as he paces the room from side to side. His clothes, ancient in dim lighting. Blues and yellows of the old Al Bhed crest hanging still on his back as he breathes in heavily between statements, "for instance, you spend your days delving deep into the whys and hows of collective visions. Other researchers decide to focus their efforts on addressing the problems of superposition and entropy. What do all these projects have in common?"
This is the first time Dekklan has an opportunity to speak since Seymour's leave. He looks at Kaia, then at Maurok - still pacing, half waiting for an answer.
"We are all extending the reach of your original work. What is it you are getting at? Are you trying to suggest that this is a..."
"Collective vision? This may not be too far from the truth," Maurok stops pacing and sits down in one of the chairs. While absent-mindedness bleeds through heavy eyelids, his fingers fly about the main console springing screens to life.
Kaia and Dekklan join him in their own respective chairs.
"When you spend enough time thinking about something, even ridiculous notions acquire an air of plausability. Farplane Rock is a perfect example of this," Maurok says, "the energy signatures, as you probably know by now, are consistent with those present in the Farplane, a location not far from here. You see now why Guadosalam is an excellent home for my research operation."
The console readout is in a Guado dialect. Dekklan and Kaia, unfamiliar with the language, settle for silence.
Maurok continues, "the Guado aren't always the most accomodating, but it only takes a nudge to step out of the shade."
"...twisted anomally? A hiccup in time?"
"The weeks turn into months. Months to years. Eventually, faith in my research dwindles. It isn't until the electrostatic sensors off the coast begin going crazy that it makes sense to look up."
"Why are they allowing your research to continue?" Dekklan asks. Curious beyond belief.
"Farplane Rock offers a chance to answer a few of these questions. A chance."
"Take a look," it is at this time that Maurok directs their attention to the consoles in front of them. The visual data disappears for a split second and, out of the blackness, a simple read-out.
"The coastal sensors set off an alarm in the presence of large, electric fields. Due to the electronic nature of weaponized machina, the sensors serve the purpose of alerting officials of impending assaults. These units are so useful to my research operations that it only seems natural to sell them to Zanarkand officials during the height of the Machina War. The influx of cash bodes well for future developments."
"Little do we know the coastal sensors will also play a role in predicting the largest galactic anomally in Spira's history."
"The probe's signal broadcast provides perfect understanding of when we will see Farplane Rock again. The asteroid houses energy unlike anything on our planet. Enough to solve the problem of resource management and, more important, give us the letters and words necessary to rewrite Spira's future."
"The magnitude of pyreflies in Farplane Rock's electronic radius shorts the vast majority of the refurbished models. My research laboratory in Bevelle - shortly before Yevon begins excavating scientists to the Sanubia Desert - is responsible for keeping many of these units in working order in case Zanarkand's disenfranchised machinists devise a revenge plot. Most of Zanarkand's intellectual elite are rejects of Bevelle institutions, perfect fodder for a sinister brew. As we all know now, Zanarkand's revenge comes regardless. Sin changes everything."
Maurok speaks with such conviction, Kaia and Dekklan catch the bug. Dekklan now sees why Maurok clings to the world of the living, Spira's future is paramount to his existence.
Maurok is a man of a thousand years. Weaving in and out of Spira's political structure far longer than nature normally permits can do a number on an individual's moral compass. To believe a man of a thousand years is a fool's errand unto itself.
"A handful of scientists in Astrology know of Farplane Rock."
"They tell me that it is an asteroid with an elliptical orbit. It will rub noses with our planet within the next day or two. After its upcoming visit, Spira will not see the stone for another one-thousand years."
"There's a chance - a chance mind you - that we have enough time to fasten a probe to the giant rock. Something that will record data to be of use a millenia from now."
"Luckily, my fast friends have experience launching probes on a budget and within a day we begin testing Spira's Hope, as we come to call it."
"As the stone grazes our planet's atmosphere, something clings to me as I watch the probe launch. Something lurches at my soul. It is then that I truly realize that I will not be alive to see Farplane Rock's return. I will not be able to see Spira's future rewritten."
"After the probe's first report reaches us, we know its fate is no longer in our hands. All we can do is wait. All Spira can do is wait."
"Returning to the lone console in my laboratory, I decide to continue pondering my dilemma: the inexplicable vision from years past still driving my discomfort. The derision misguides me but, perhaps, the event can be of use to someone else. Someone wiser, with more experience."
"The clowns in my research troupe are just that: clowns. I cannot trust them. No, it will have to be me."
"It is then that the screen in front of me lights up. Almost spontaneously, as though a puppeteer is pulling the strings."
"The console inhales and lets out a whisper."