Square-Enix is the sole owner of most of the characters and all of the settings in this story. One of the characters is all mine.
A/N - 1. Any similarity of a plot line in this story to another with which the reader may be familiar is entirely deliberate.
2. Since all the characters are Al Bhed, the reader should assume they are speaking their own language and be grateful that I have translated everything into Common English, thereby sparing all of us considerable annoyance.
SAND STONE
Rin still kept his principal home and the headquarters of his growing mercantile empire at his old haunt along the Mi'ihen Highroad. He said it was because the central location made it convenient but those who knew him best suspected a more sentimental motive. This was where it had begun and Rin had always somehow gravitated back here.
He was leaning on the big front counter, idly discussing needed supplies with a friend who was a traveling merchant when a figure burst through the front door bringing in a blast of heat from the outside and disrupting the refined chatter of the guests enjoying tea at the small tables scattered about the large room.
"Hey, Rin! I want to talk to you!" Gippal, looking remarkably like a pirate in his embroidered eyepatch and his mismatched clothes, ignored everything except his immediate objective.
Rin rushed around the counter and grabbed his fellow Al Bhed by the forearm to hush him. "What's the matter with you? You know better than to make a fuss in here."
Gippal gulped and made a visible effort to control himself. "Can we talk somewhere? Business."
Rin nodded toward the back. "Come on. I've got an office in the extension over there." He led the way down a series of corridors. Unnoticed by the other two, the merchant whose name was Aquelev tagged along, propelled by a powerful curiosity.
They emerged into a lavishly appointed room with a large desk and comfortable chairs.
"You do yourself well," Aquelev remarked, looking around at the elaborate furnishings and taking note of the various carefully restored antiques in niches and on tables.
"Don't see any reason to mortify my flesh after all this time. I lived close to the bone for years building up the business. Now, it's my turn." Rin turned to Gippal and promptly forgot about the salesman. "Now what it is so important that you make an ass of yourself in front of my customers and demand my personal attention?"
The younger man threw himself down into the most heavily cushioned armchair, propped his feet on a convenient stool, and drawled, "Nhadala's found something."
Rin, established behind the desk, steepled his fingers. "Nhadala? Nhadala? Isn't she the one overseeing the reconstruction of Home?"
"Yes. And before they can start building, they have to clear off the wreckage of the old stuff."
"So?"
"Well, they've been digging and selling the scrap they find for the gil they need to keep going. It costs to rebuild a city."
"I know. They've pestered me enough for donations." The merchant-prince raised an eyebrow.
"So Nhadala sent for me to look at this thing she found and come talk to you."
"Why me?"
"Because you're the only one with enough money to maybe buy it, the only Al Bhed anyway."
"What's this thing you want me to buy for this massive sum so you can keep wasting it?"
Gippal flared up and almost leapt to his feet, but the chair was too deep and too soft for leaping up from. "We're not wasting it, not a single gil! We're trying to get Home built!"
"Settle down, boy. What've you found?"
The young man sank back into the depths of the chair. "We think it's a stone," he muttered, his face red.
"You think? Can't you, with all your experience grubbing around Spira, tell a stone when you see one? What kind of stone?"
"That's the problem. We don't know. A big stone."
"A boulder? You want me to buy a boulder? An unidentified boulder of unknown value? You think I'm running a charity? How many gil do you want for this boulder?"
"We don't know. Some of us thought you might know how much it's worth."
Rin sighed theatrically. "Let's start over. What has Nhadala found?"
Gippal paused for an uncharacteristically long time. "It's kind of hard to describe. I know it wasn't there to begin with. Nobody could have missed it. It's too big for anybody to have put where we found it. Dam'fi know how it got there." He stuttered to a halt.
"Dammit! What is it?" Rin kicked the stool from under Gippal's feet.
"It's a black slab. A rectangle. Polished. Big."
Rin sighed, "How big?"
"I'm not sure. Nobody wants to touch it to measure it. But it's big. Taller than three of us standing on each other's shoulders. About as thick as a fat man."
"Any markings?" Aquelev had been so quiet the other two had forgotten he was in the room and were startled when he spoke.
"No. It's smooth as a bald man's head. Not even a scratch on it, front or back."
"Is it standing up then?" "What's it made out of?" The two spoke at the same time.
"Yep, it's upright. Don't know how it got that way and I'm not sure what material ..." Gippal furrowed his brow in thought. " I don't know any mineral around Bikanel that would polish up a glossy black like that. Nothing that comes in such big slabs anyway. And I've been digging in that desert all my life."
Aquelev looked at Gippal with exasperation. "You're not telling us everything. Go on, spill it out. We're all Members of the Tribe here."
Gippal looked as abashed as was possible for him. "Yeah, well, when we got it out of the ground, we saw it was nothing like the other stuff we'd dug up. Rin, the edges were sharp, like something had carved it out of a bigger rock. And it was so black! It was like looking into a vacuum. Some of us went out that night to look at it again. I don't know why. It was like we had to and ..." He stopped and closed his eye.
Rin shoved the chair Gippal was sitting in. "Go on, you young fool. What happened?"
"That's just it. I don't know. All of us felt something. Made our ears hurt like a loud noise. But it wasn't a noise ... I don't think."
"What was it?" Aquelev leaned forward curiously.
"I just told you. I don't know! All I know is it hurt my ears and then we all felt funny and sleepy. And then - we all woke up next morning with the same idea."
"Ah, now we're getting to it." Rin raised an eyebrow.
"We're going to build an airship to go out into ..." Gippal made an expansive gesture.
"Where? Around the world?"
"Not the world. We're going to go outside. Into space." There was an apologetic note in Gippal's voice.
Aquelev could no longer contain himself. "You're going where?"
Gippal looked down at his hands, tightly clasped between his knees and mumbled, "Space. You know, that place out there. The black stuff with stars."
"But why? There's nothing out there."
"We don't know that. It seems like a good idea to a bunch of us."
Rin peered intently at the younger man. "What gave you all that idea?"
"Oh, it just came to us."
The entrepreneur stroked his chin. "We've gotten a long way off the topic. What do you want from me?"
"Well, we thought maybe you might buy the stone and we could use the money to build a space ship. We've got some wrecks we could cannibalize for parts."
"I see."
Aquelev's eyes sparkled. "Hey, Gippal, can I come along?"
"Only if you buy in."
"I'll bet my uncle would be interested. I'll talk to him. He's always looking for a good investment."
"Wait a minute!" Rin interrupted. "I get first shot at it. You came to me first."
"You know, my uncle Gratti won't be such a skeptic. He won't give you such a hard time. He knows how to take advantage of an opportunity. That's how he got richer than Rin. How about it, Gippal?"
Rin spluttered, "Yeah. But it was to me, not your uncle, that Gippal came first."
"And you just played him along." Aquelev had learned his lessons well. He had been taught to haggle by a master.
Gippal sat back, smiling and steepling his fingers. Show an Al Bhed the chance to make a profit and stand back. Outer space was beginning to look very close.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
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