In the Temple of Ice
AN: Please, take note: I don't exactly like the pairing of Yuna and Seymour, however, I found that I was wondering what happened in the time that Yuna was separated from her ever faithful (and more interesting *cough Rikku cough Auron*) Guardians. I worked a bit at inserting meaning into the way I structured the sentences and chose words which is what I mean by 'mature' audience, as they might appreciate it more.
Disclaimer: No.
In the House in a Heartbeat : one of the songs I listened to, as well as Beethovans Tempest.
Yuna tried to breathe through the cold. The inside of her nose was uncomfortable, and the grip that the Guado, Tromell, had on her arm was too tight to be reassuring, and too warm to be terrifying. They sped along the ice by the Guados magicked quickness. The wind was almost too much to bear for her eyes, it was all she could do to keep her balance while sliding along the ice.
His wavering voice whisked alongside the air at a deeper resonance, in order to survive the wind, but the strength of it was stolen by the frozen breath.
"Lady Yuna, you fought like a true summoner. You will make a fine wife and partner for Maester Seymour."
Yunas teeth clenched from the cold, making it even more difficult in her numbed brain to think of a suitable response. She would have liked to wholeheartedly thank the Guado, but the sincerity and enthusiasm he voiced created a sickening conflict in her gut. It chilled what little was left of her warmth.
'Quickly- think of something, I don't want to be rude' she thought.
"T-T-Truly, Tromel?"
"Oh, yes, Lady Summoner. Would you like to have a part of the banquet dinner when we arrive at the Temple?"
Yuna wanted to ask why there was a banquet, and she also wanted to know what happened with Rikku and the other Al Bhed, but she was already accepting his offer.
"Th-that would be lovely… thank you."
The Temple rose in the distance, a sentinels face turning, its sentience looming upon the conscious of the intruder.
Yuna pressed her lips together.
As soon as they entered the temple doors, the release from the wind and the dome of ice created a sense of vertigo for Yuna. She marveled at the beauty, the vastness, the abyss below, the perfect filigree that the ice created in a sparkling sheen as they raced along the precipice bridge.
Tromel slid to a stop, made an archaic movement with his long, large, hands and Yuna tried to take a deep breath but the façade of the temple took it away again. Tromel bowed deeply and gestured for her to ascend the stairs. Yuna gazed with wide eyes at the gate to the Aeon of Ice, a wide beautiful maw open just enough for a person crossing its threshold to be swallowed by its decoration.
She squared her shoulders, 'I already made my decision' she thought sternly to herself. She graciously nodded to the monk with the cold eyes and warm smile, as he benevolently loomed over her, gesturing that she venture deeper.
The temples she journeyed to never ceased to amaze her, and her multicolored eyes gazed upon the multifaceted ceiling with reverent wonder.
She wished she could see her guardians reactions. Rikku especially. 'What had happened?' The thought bothered her, but seeing the statue of her father… his face carved into stone… the thought dissipated. It looked all too natural for someone with his features- except to her it was uncanny. Stone edifices never expressed Braska as her Father, just as a Summoner.
The ice crystals that decorated the base of his statue seemed to flutter with memories and trepidation, though, she supposed, it might be just her. Was her breath coming in shudders?
It was surprisingly warm inside the temple. Her cheeks were pricking with adjusted heat.
A silk voice drifted high into the resonating chambers.
"Lady Yuna, it is such a pleasure to see you. I had hoped you would be coming. Thank you, Tromel, for escorting her safely."
His Guado steward bowed. Seymour fixated upon Yuna with his ice blue eyes, so like the tundra outside the temple.
"Would you like me to escort you to your chambers?" He asked her, with kindness so perfectly inflected in his voice.
An acolyte gushed with Shelinda as Yuna tried to be genuine about her gratitude towards his kindness.
He extended his long arm. She hesitated before accepting, then swallowed as she made contact with the heavy silk of his robes. She smelled his scent, a mixture of incense, the earth and … a faint impression of … a mysterious familiar scent. Not quite recognizable. She didn't know precisely what to do as she shifted, confusedly self-aware.
He smiled, "I'll allow for you to drop off your personal items, and to eat something before we enter the chamber."
Yuna turned towards him, a bit startled. "Wha-what do you mean Maester Seymour?"
"Please. We are to be wed, are we not?"
"Uh- yes. What do you mean, Seymour?"
He glided to the chamber which was not occupied by monks and an overly excitable dog in revel.
"You came here to obtain the fayth, and so I will help you."
He opened the doors with one hand, guiding her through, while looking down upon her. His eyes alight with some amusement.
"Oh."
She kept moving forward into the room, and his arm delicately followed her for a time before she had extricated herself from his grasp, though her eyes still remained connected to his. Vaguely she knew she should be concerned about the Guado tradition entailed, but she didn't want to begin her confrontation with something so trivial. She broke her gaze, and turned away, gently placing her small sack of personal items along with the sphere that contained her duty and her secret. A cat lounging in the room sniffed at it before gazing at her with golden eyes.
"I- actually am not very hungry." She stood resolutely, though with her hands tightly clasped in front of her.
"You have travelled a long way to eat nothing. At least have some bread."
"…I- alright."
When Seymour once again proffered his arm to her, she accepted without hesitation, though she uncontrollably blushed. Accidently, it was her face that was close to his bare chest, marked in the black twisted lines of twin dragons, or perhaps leviathans. She never stared quite long enough to make out what they were, and she would not ever consider asking him such a personal question. Though, she would later think that it was a very silly thought as her purpose in this was to negotiate some kind of deal in which he would stop… stop what she wasn't exactly sure… and she would do what he wanted and marry him.
Marriage.
Her breath reflexively gasped inward at the weight of what she was doing hit her again. She looked up into his porcelain face run with blue, and his profile faced her, perfect and beautiful, while his hair, strangely deviant, made his appearance somewhat aberrant. She flicked her eyes away a second too late as his caught the tail end of her reflection, and he smiled secretly.
They were about to enter the Cloister of Trials when she noticed that two other Guado were close behind them.
She was struck by abject horror that they might have to overhear this awful accusation. Trying to think of something that wouldn't sound like a lie- she was embarrassingly reminded of Auron's glasses accusing her of being a poor liar- she clutched at the embroidered silk and squeezed to get his attention.
His face, not exactly surprised or expectant, but somewhere in between, "Is there something the matter?"
He was curious, expressed without the razor undertone he held when he inquired as to Aurons state of being.
"I- um…" She scrambled, frantic- 'going to talk to him, what was the Guado tradition, where are they now I wonder, how did they know to throw a banquet in honor of a wedding before I got here- oh married' She blushed before she knew what she was going to say. "I thought that we might be alone… for this."
Seymour's lips spread into a wide, thin smile that reached his eyes.
"Normally, we would have chaperones- but in this case…" He turned towards the two guards, who impassively halted at his command. As he turned, he placed Yuna directly in view of his chest and abdomen. She wondered again if they were scars or if they accompanied him because he lived.
He smiled down at her, placing his other hand over hers. "Come then. I said that I would be your Lord Zaon, did I not?"
It was odd that they did not have to solve the Cloister of trials, Yuna thought as she entered the dark and warm tunnel.
Seymour spoke "The test is whether or not you can continue with the knowledge you have gained."
Unnerved by his prediction, she briefly considered his statement, though it's true meaning was lost in the cloud of her current preoccupation "How…true…"
They walked along the dark and secret tunnel to the chamber of the fayth. Surprisingly, Seymour started speaking again.
His voice was as mild as spring in Besaid. "Lady Yuna, did you know that the aeon that resides here is not only the aeon of ice, but also the patron aeon of lovers?"
Yuna started, and if there was more movement allowed between them she would have whorled to face him with her arms placed protectively in front of her chest. Before she could melt out of her complete shock at the absurdity of what he was saying, his voice dripped down further, the fur like quality of his breath rubbing down her neck as he spoke intimately. The punctuation he articulated with was still present- it was too deeply ingrained in him, just as soft enunciation would be always with Yuna - but his voice had adopted a quality much like the plucking lute strings.
"Her true name is Shiva. As you know, most summoners dub their aeons with a new name, for some believe it gives the summoner more…power. A…pull…if you will, but I feel that leaving the aeons true name gives it more power. Shiva, an ancient goddess, a woman frozen by saudade… Who would take the name from her but poor fools trapped inside their own path of fate?"
Seymour meticulously glazed over Yuna with his eyes of spring skies just inside a winter. Yuna was blushing for reasons she didn't know, but she felt it again.
The same feeling he stirred when he coolly purred into her ear in the sphere projection. Proposing marriage as their own sphere projection to the people of Spira. Overwhelmed, fighting sensations that were unfamiliar and censurably electrifying, Yuna tried to look anywhere else but at Seymour. Which was a difficult feat without letting go of him, as he was at that time opening the heavy stone door that led to the guardians hall that came before the chamber of the fayth.
It was 'now' she thought, that she should tell him, but the words would not formulate inside her head. Her heart was beating too quickly for her to hear clearly the soprano song of Shiva, but she heard the quicksilver of Seymours voice.
"My Lady, might I ask you a question before you enter?"
She turned up to look at him, he turned into her, and their eyes held a thin line of tension for a mortal breath.
Yuna felt his gaze like ice pricking into her heart, the weight of his gaze serious, quiet, and cold. It was a switch from his usual demeanor which was, she knew, a very fine practiced façade- this however… it was an advent of melting ice. A revelation and a barrier of Seymours own, though it might not be one purposefully made. 'It could be anything- does he know that I know?' She guiltily wished for this before a cloud of possibilities rained in her head.
She nodded.
"Would you have accepted my proposal had it been that I… had not suggested it was for the people of Spira?"
Any previous thought that Yuna may have retained was wiped away by another wave of shock at this- profession, accusation, test- the concepts turned into a hurricane of instability. Her mouth parted in a dumbfound expression, while Seymour's eyes lowered from her eyes that told a tale of chance and secret heritage. Her hands flew to her face, a nervous and protective reaction.
"Why- I- that is…!"
Seymour allowed her to draw back though he stepped closer to her. "I wonder then, if it is that you pity me?"
"I wouldn't- I haven't- I do not pity you!" She clung to something that she could answer.
Seymour's head tilted, his hair creating a surreal frame for his face. "I wonder if that is part of the problem then?"
Yuna's eyes, still wide, still holding the secret truth of Seymour, was looking at everything and at nothing. Seymour, gentle and immense, encircled her with his arms, then took her errant hand in his, and with his other, tilted her chin delicately up to come once again into his gaze.
"Is there another reason that you accepted to be my wife?"
Yuna was reminded starkly, though it was a precarious time to announce that she did have another reason, it had to be now.
"Yes."
Seymour's smile slid across his face once more and before "Such glorious resolve I see in your eyes, a future and an end all at once." And without anything more he kissed her, and Yuna was frozen.
Later, she reasoned, as she touched her lips stumbling into Shivas abode, as he asked once more about her pity, as watched his body being carried away, as the snow fell around her and her companions, as the sun blazed over her, as she was inside metal walls, she reasoned.