Beside the Rolling Sea
:Prologue:
He'd heard Zanarkand called "the city that never sleeps." Standing on the docks, he could believe it: light and noise buzzed around him in a frenzied flow of energies. It was incredibly charged, the atmosphere here, but Auron sensed something about it. It was like the final throes of a clock about to wind down, to use all of its energy in a final burst of triumphant achievement. In the midst of it all, surrounded by that inevitable end of an ambiguous nature, was one small boy who he had to discover.
Tidus.
The house was not difficult to come to. Say the name "Jecht" in Zanarkand, and most blitzball fans could tell you he lived on the waterfront. Some would even know which house, and Auron was lucky enough to run across one of these. Still, the dingy structure surprised him. From Jecht's enormous fame, one would expect him to have a bit a nicer home. Instead, it was falling apart, sideboards warped by storm and wind exposure, lawn untended, riddled with weeds and a fine dusting of sand. Everything about the place suggested middle-class, if not poor.
Of course, Jecht's wife was raising her son alone now. And somehow, Auron got the feeling that his friend had never been much of a supportive husband and father anyway. Liora would doubtless be struggling to keep things together.
Feeling like an intruder, he rapped sharply on the door once. After several moments, he did it again. Perhaps no one was home. Suddenly, as he was about to try a final time, the door creaked and swung inward, revealing a three-inch stripe of tanned skin and large cyan eyes.
"Who're you?"
The boy had a child's equivalent of his father's manners, if he was indeed Jecht's son. "Is your mother here?" Auron asked, trying to sound friendly.
Withdrawing a little at the stranger's gruff voice, a head of tousled sun-bleached hair shook enthusiastically.
"When will she be home?"
Between door and frame, the visible portion of collarbone rose and fell so as to suggest a shrug. "She works at the marina," he answered.
"Are you Tidus?" Auron asked, feeling a sense of bafflement at this waiflike child, who might be the son of his best friend.
"Yeah. Who're you?"
"My name is Auron." He turned, heard the door shut. It would be best to seek out Liora now, so that he could explain things away from the boy. She might be wary of him at first, and it would not do to give that impression to Tidus. Even if he had only come here to see the boy through growing up, that would be some time. And then he would be free of his duties.
Liora was not the elegantly beautiful woman Jecht had so fondly related, but that was no surprise. Men often thought their women to be the jewels of femininity, even if they were rough and coarse as splintering wood. She wasn't unattractive, but there was a weariness in her, a sagging of her frame and a sadness he knew from experience. She seemed exhausted as he introduced himself, studying the lines that slung beneath her eyes and had begun to form between sepia eyebrows.
She was striking– even handsome– but not by any stretch of the imagination a stunning work of art. Blonde hair clashed with dark eyebrows, her nose too thin for such a square face. Auron could imagine that she was probably, a few years back, exactly what Jecht would find entrancing: unconventional, not so perfect as to lessen his own image, strong in a quiet way. The youthful power had not been sapped from her hands, at least; when she shook with him, he thought he was meeting Jecht a second time over. Work that had strained her spirit must have honed her physically.
"Liora," she said by way of introduction.
"Auron. I was a friend of your husband."
Her eyes flashed, brief and fascinating. "Why are you here?"
Not yet, something whispered. She would not be ready to know the truth just yet. "Jecht asked me to take care of his family, if something should ever happen to him. I...heard about the accident."
"Ah." Skeptical at first, her gaze relaxed after a moment of scrutiny. "My shift ends soon. I usually go home; would you like to come with me, and meet Tidus?"
"I believe I already have– I went by your house looking for you earlier."
"Oh! I'm sorry if he said anything to upset you," she smiled long-sufferingly, as though her son often drove away possible friends. "But, if I may ask, why did you choose to come now?"
"I just found out about Jecht."
He died nearly a year ago, she wanted to say, but this Auron didn't seem to be leading her on.
"Were you two...close?"
His eyes clouded, vapidity replaced in a flash by an unfathomable smile. "In a manner."
Liora returned the gesture with a half-grin of her own, suddenly demure. Her hands fiddled with the worn hem of a working uniform. "Well...Auron. I'll finish up my shift, and then we'll go see what Tidus has to say about this– hopefully nothing he picked up at school."
"Indeed."
He nodded to her, heading out to the docks. The ocean was an unusual steel grey, stormy when the sky was cloudless. With a glance to the horizon, he silently searched for a sign that he was doing things right. There was no answering of Yevon's booming voice as in the myths; not even the last rumbles of far off-thunder graced his ears to impersonate Jecht's amiable laughter.