This is a translation of a story I wrote in french. So if you are a French speaking reader, vous avez sans doute meilleur temps d'aller lire la version originale, « Dernier adieu ».
I tried my best with the translation, but I am not an native English speaker, so please be kind!
I hope you will like it.
The Cover image was made with the "Elven portrait maker" from the site azaleasdolls. You can find it easily using a search engine.
Last farewell
The paths and footbridges of Guadosalam were bathed in its perpetually diffuse light. Day and night always looked the same here, but now the activity was slowing down for the rest hours. The streets were almost empty there was only a few stragglers left and it wouldn't be long before they go home or to an inn. And then, of course, there were the sentries guarding the path to the Farplane's portal.
Rikku was hiding in the shadow of a curve and peered out. The two sentries were not unattentive, but they weren't particularly on the alert, either. However, the silence was almost complete in the tree city, and even a faint sound would be clearly audible. She had better to be really stealthy.
Well, no point to keep hesitating, she knew why she was here, all the visitors she had seen enter the portal had come out long ago, it was time. Hidden in a curve of the footbridge leading to the portal, Rikku stepped over the guardrail et clung to its external side, and then began to move forward using the intricate patterns woven by the intertwined branches and roots, taking care to remain out of sight et as silent as breeze.
It became harder to progress when the footbridge started to go up toward the portal, not far beyond the sentries. She bended and raised her leg high to support her weight, so she could pull herself up despite the limited strength in her arms, and suddenly she thought that maybe a miniskirt was not the best suited outfit for this. She smirked : well, she was precisely not supposed to be seen, so it didn't matter, right ? She could have been naked all the same, no ? At this thought, she almost laughed out nervously, but barely managed to control herself and kept on climbing.
After endless minutes, she finally reached the level of the portal. It was the most dangerous moment : she had to step over the guardrail again to come back on the footbridge and then pass the portal. If a guard were to turn toward her at this moment, he couldn't fail to see her.
She pulled herself upward, raised her leg high to avoid stumbling on the railing and regained her balance on the footbridge. She could see clearly the two guards below, and the platform where she had once waited for the others when they had entered the Farplane during Yuna's pilgrimage. She sighed silently: one of the reasons that had kept her from passing the portal then was precisely the reason why she wanted to go through it today. Before one of the guards could turn over, she passed the strange light veil to enter the Farplane.
Silence had a different texture here. The silence of Guadosalam city in its sleepy hours was like heavy velvet, with light rustles seeming to float in the air. In the Farplane, it was the silence of a cathedral. It seemed to extend endlessly. More or less like on a ship with all engines turned off on a dead calm in the night. Rikku didn't know if she should feel tiny, overburdened, or on the contrary elated.
She shook her head, making her braids fly. No metaphysics, she had come with a set goal. In the middle of pyreflies' arabesques that seemed sometimes to cling to her, Rikku walked to the edge of the stone platform, looked around one last time to make sure she was alone and faced the infinite.
She inhaled deeply and then said the name of the person she wanted to see : « Auron ».
The pyreflies agglutinated, and an image formed, the image of the legendary Guardian with two victorious pilgrimages, wearing his no less legendary red coat, his no less legendary sword thrown as if carelessly over his shoulder despite its size. Just like before, his face was almost entirely hidden by his high collar and his dark glasses. How many times had Rikku tried to meet his gaze nonetheless ? Without much success... except when he deigned to take off those glasses she both liked and hated.
Rikku shook her head again. She had not come to get lost in her memories, like most people did here. She had come to act, to make a desperate attempt, to provoke a last chance, and she wanted to know. She inhaled again and her voice rised in the silence of the Farplane.
« Hello, Auron. You're the one I've come to see. You didn't change, did you ? Unlike me, right ? That's why I'm here. You remember, during Yuna's pilgrimage ? I was the youngest, the little Rikku, the kid. The one no one takes seriously, right ? And yet, you did end up taking me seriously, didn't you, Auron ... ? »
She untied the blue bandana holding back her braids and they fell against her back and shoulders.
« ... Over all those weeks, those months travelling together. When I asked you for advice about my training ... When we both remained here outside, waiting for the others... When you mistreated me in the Thunder Planes, to make me more angry than frightened, but I understood that only later... »
She took off her scarf, and let it fall on the ground.
« All those evenings when we talked together, when you were keeping watch and I was supposed to be sleeping... Well, in the beginning I was doing most of the talking, wasn't I ? But then, little by little, you talked more... And I fell in love with you... »
She began to undo the ribbons of her right sleeve one by one, until the piece of cloth slid to the ground, steadily staring at Auron's image floating in front of her.
« And we became closer, more and more, do you remember ? And after we escaped Bevelle, when we got together again, I mean when we were just the two of us after that... When we kissed for the first time... It was unbelievable, impossible... and yet in the same time... obvious. I will never forget the way you looked at me after that, as if you couldn't really believe it either. »
She pulled at the bows of her second sleeve, always without looking at her fingers, and the fabric fell on the ground with a soft rustle.
« After that I was always seeking any excuse so we could be alone together, even just for a few minutes. And you were always smiling when you saw me approaching, I knew it even before you opened your collar. And those nights when I managed to sneak into your tent, when we talked together softly, and sometimes I ended up falling asleep. And sometimes, I pretended to be asleep and I felt you caressing my hair with the tips of your fingers. But you know it already, I guess. »
Rikku kept quiet for a second. If Auron could hear her, he already knew all this, of course but it was easier to keep talking. She resumed her speech aloud :
« And finally, there was the last night on the airship, before we faced Sin. We could die, all of us or only some, and I knew that even if we won, you would go. So I came to meet you in your cabin. I wanted... wanted us to make love for that last night, but you refused... You said... »
Rikku lost her voice for a second, but swallowed and carried on :
« ... you said that I was too young. That you loved me... but that you... that you could not desire me that way... That sometimes you looked at me and saw the woman I was becoming, and for a moment you could desire that image, but that you still saw too much the child I still was... »
Still standing straight, Rikku took off her shoes by stepping on their backs.
« ...You said that... that I was pretty, that I was obviously going to become even prettier, but that... that I was too young... I tried to go away slamming the door and crying, but fortunately you held me back. I spent the night in your arms anyway, but not the way I had planned... »
Rikku kept silent for a second and then reached beside her back with both hands, to untie her bikini top. She resumed speaking :
« But now, Auron... Men do look at me like a woman. I know, I've observed them. Maybe I've even provoked them a bit, sometimes. »
She held the thin piece of bikini at the tips of her fingers before letting it fall.
« There is only my father left, and maybe Brother, to look at me like a little girl... But that doesn't really count, does it ? »
In a single move she took off her miniskirt and the bottom of her bikini and left them in turn on the rock, taking one step forward. She was completely naked and stared at Auron's image.
« So, Auron, now would be an excellent time to prove I was wrong, when I thought the dead here were only projections of our memories and nothing more. You quite liked to prove me wrong, didn't you ? Then, then Auron... it would be perfect, right now... Because I am not a little girl anymore, and I... I would like you... you to show me that... that you regard me as a woman... »
Rikku's voice faded away and she stood without moving. The pyreflies were floating around her, sometimes seeming to cling to her hair or brush her skin. The light bubbles were dancing in the same way around the always immobile image of Auron. The only movement was their sparkling.
Rikku, standing straight, her chin up, had her eyes fixed on the red clothed figure. Time stretched out...
What comes next is already written, I just (hum...) have to translate and proofread it. If you like the story, please leave a review, it will motivate me to work on it faster.
And if you wishes to help me fix the translation, you will be welcome, send me a pm.