I knelt wearily before the glowing, glass-entombed statue that sat before me. I had come this far, and now I was finally going to do it. I made the motion passed down from before I'd been born; the movement was a prayer, admittance that one was imperfect without Yevon and his teachings. As I leaned forward, touching my forehead to the cool stone in submission, I thought back to all the months before now. I had heard the whispers, even before I'd begun my training; because I was only sixteen, many assumed I wasn't fit to take on the pilgrimage. I understood it... somewhat, at least. Really, anyone had the right to take on a pilgrimage once they had completed preliminary training and been ordained in the name of Yevon, but it wasn't common for someone so young.
About me echoed the Hymn; it rang out in a high, cool soprano that sent tingles through me. It was the voice of the Fayth before me... of Valefor. She had been the Governess of Besaid at the time of Sin's birth. When Yunalesca had come to the island and asked for a Fayth to train new Summoners, Lady Valefor had bravely stepped forward. I remember the day when I was three, and my older sister Lonna offered herself to the cause... to Yevon. She became a Summoner, and was sent off to Zanarkand to attain the Final Aeon. She died on the slopes of Mount Gagazet. Now there I was, the same as she had been, asking for help from a Fayth.
"Mathys..." came the voice of the Fayth. I looked up and saw Lady Valefor. She didn't look like she was any older than she would have been the day she became a Fayth. I stared at her in disbelief and she smiled. "So, you've chosen a Summoner's path? Be warned, the road ahead is barred by many trials, and even greater still is your responsibility to Spira and to Yevon." I nodded; the whole reason I had become a Summoner was to help the people of Spira, just like Lonna.
"I know all of this," I said. "I know it will be... difficult. That does not deter me from my goal." Lady Valefor seemed pleased with this answer.
"Very well," she said. "Go now, into the world of Yevon, and walk proudly with my blessings upon you." With that, she stepped through me and I suddenly felt incredibly weak. I stood shakily and exited the room to see my Guardians, Elaina and Milan, waiting faithfully. Milan caught me about the shoulders as I stumbled.
"Are you alright?" he asked. I smiled and nodded, trying to regain my composure.
"Yes, thank you," I said. Elaina was trying her best not to look worried for me, but it was written in her emerald eyes. The clergy had warned that the first time you received an Aeon from a Fayth, it would be draining. I had not been aware of just how draining it would be... but it was no time for personal weakness.
"She would have been proud," Elaina said. I knew she was right; Lonna was watching me from the Farplane even as we spoke, and I was sure she was smiling. I stepped softly down the stairs of the temple's reception chamber. As I passed, various people who had been praying looked at me. The weight of so many eyes watching me—judging my every move—began to wear me down.
"Just a little more," Milan said. "Once we get outside, you can perform your first Summoning, and show everyone just what kind of Summoner you'll be." I nodded, and he went before me to open the doors.
Stepping into the bright, island sunlight helped me feel stronger. Being in that fresh, airy atmosphere was a much-needed change from the dark, somber ambiance that the temple seemed to enforce. Before me was the Summoner's Circle, a great metal ring which all Summoner's performed their first Summoning in. I had heard stories from elders that before Sin, the Summoner's Circle had been the base of a mighty mechanized tower that had been used to predict the weather. Sin had toppled the symbol of our achievement... We never dared to rebuild it.
Stepping into the ring, a crowd gathered around me. Everyone I knew and loved was there; young children that I had played games with, elders who had told me stories... all there to see me begin my journey. I couldn't hold off the first Summoning anymore.
I gathered myself and held my staff close to me, then opened my arms. I felt the rush of wind as a circle of light surrounded me. Not just one circle, though—there were four smaller circles, and all moved around me as lights rose into the air. They conjoined into a single light somewhere in the sky, and from that light burst forth a creature. It had wings like a dragon, but it had feathers, a beak, and talons like a bird.
"Oh!" I said. It looked fierce, but I knew that an Aeon would not hurt its Summoner. "My Lady... I..." I began, but I was interrupted when she nuzzled my hand with her beak. I patted her and rubbed the feathers of her neck. "Thank you." With that, she jumped and retreated into the sky.
"That was amazing!" Milan said, coming over and patting me on the back. "You'll be the next Yunalesca for sure." I smiled and nodded my head, but in truth I was... unsure. I was hesitant to accept such high praise. Not since High Summoner Yunalesca had journeyed wither her husband Lord Zaon had anyone obtained the Final Aeon. Without it, no one had paralleled the feat of defeating Sin. For two hundred and sixty years, the current incarnation of Sin had plagued our world, but now... Now we were growing strong.
"Milan... Elaina," I said. "Hurry and pack so we may leave soon. Sin does not wait- neither shall we." With that, I walked back to my own tent and began to pack my things. Clothing, some minor provisions, bathing essentials, and an empty sphere. The sphere was for... well it was essential for the last part of my journey. As I finished, Milan and Elaina walked in.
"Are you ready?" Elaina asked, tucking an errant lock of chocolate hair back behind her ear. I nodded, and Milan thrust his fist into the air.
"Then let's get moving!" he said. "I can't wait to see the world and travel side-by-side with a Summoner as my charge." I laughed, as did Elaina, and hoisted my satchel onto my shoulder. On cresting the hill outside the village, I looked back.
"This would be a good place for some sort of monument," I said. "Maybe to Yunalesca..." I then made the prayer gesture, and continued onward.
Why the harbor was on the other side of the island, I would never understand, but we made our way through the brush and came to the waterfall area. Two great walls of water came crashing down mere feet away from the two bridges that spanned the short ditches between the crumbling rock spurs jutting out from the waterfalls and the actual paths. Crossing the bridges, we came to the dense jungle area. There was an outpost here, with a rest house built into the side of the rock face. We opted to continue on, but I made sure to wave to Lina, the girl who ran the rest house for people traveling to and from Besaid. Making our way across the sandy shoals of the beach, we approached the boat.
"Woah!" Milan said, looking at the large, mechanical marvel that was our transport from the island of Besaid with wide brown eyes. "It's huge!" he said. I had to admit myself that it was rather impressive; with the growing taboo on various machines put upon us by the church, such sights were growing rare.
"After you get through picking your jaw up off the beach," Elaina said, "maybe you'd like to get on the boat with us." Milan started to scratch the back of his head in embarrassment, ruffling the honey blonde hair before hurrying to catch up. We boarded the ship and took seats on the various metal benches lining the deck of the ship near the railing.
"Sin travels by sea," Elain said offhandedly as the ship lurched forward from the dock. "We should be wary until we reach land again." I nodded. Elaina had always been like a big sister to me since Lonna passed away.
"I wanna watch as we pull up to the continent!" Milan said, and rushed up to the front of the boat. I laughed, and walked up to join him.
"You know," I began, "if Sin were to attack, we'd fall in the ocean and be eaten." Milan snorted in disbelief.
"Yeah, right," he said. "Sin doesn't eat people." I wondered how he could be so sure of that. No one had ever really seen Sin eat, but all things eat. So if Sin didn't eat people, then what did it eat?
"So... you nervous?" Milan said. He didn't look away from the horizon. I joined him in his long gaze out over the waves.
"Just a bit," I said. It was a lie, or course—I was terrified of the road before me. On reaching the mainland, we would pass through Kilika, then Luca. I was nervous about attending the World Blitzball Championship Tournament. I'd never been good in large crowds, and Blitzball still gathered together plenty of spectators, even after the arrival of Sin.
"You shouldn't be afraid to be afraid, you know," Milan said, snapping me out of my thoughts. "You're going on a journey to defeat Sin. If you weren't a little scared, you'd be insane."
"I must not be scared when I face Sin," I said. "If I waver, I will fail." As I said this, the ship lurched a bit, and I fell backwards on the deck.
"What was that?" he asked. We started looking around wildly, and Elaina rushed up to us, green eyes wide with fear.
"Sinspawn off the starboard bow!" she said. I rushed to the right side of the ship, my two friends right behind me.
In the water, a large mass of tentacles and scaly flesh was swimming alongside us. It roared from beneath the foamy waves, and then began to inch closer to the boat again.
"It's going to ram us!" I cried. "Everyone get below deck!" Cries and shouts accompanied a general rushing of people through the door to the main deck. Elaina and Milan remained above with me, and we looked out over the railing and at the approaching fiend.
"We have to lure it further out of the water..." Elaina said. Milan furrowed his brow.
"Do we have anything we can throw at it?" he asked. I looked around and saw a pile of blitzballs by a bench—the Besaid blitzball team must have been on the boat on their way to Luca.
"Those," I said. "We can throw them at it and get its attention." Milan nodded, and ran to grab a few. I grabbed a couple as well. Elaina picked up the last one.
"I don't see how these are going to help," Elaina said. I shrugged, and Milan stepped up to the railing.
"Come on, you overgrown squid!" he yelled, and tossed one of the balls at it. It smacked the top of the wriggling hump before splashing into the water. The Sinspawn roared.
"Elaina," I said, "don't you have something up your sleeves for this?" She sighed, reached into one of her pockets, and pulled out a small bottle filled with acid-green liquid.
"I was saving this," she said, before pouring a few rivulets onto one of Milan's blitzballs. It began to spark and sputter with electrical energy, and Milan had to quickly throw it at the monster.
A more pained and angry roar welled up from the monster, and it stopped inching closer to the boat and began to surface. A wide, snarling mouth filled with wicked teeth began snapping at the cresting waves as it thrashed about.
"What was that?" I asked. Elaina smiled.
"The concentrated plasma of a Yellow Flan," she said. "It was a pain to get hold of the whole bottle, so I'd been hoping to save it for the tougher monsters living on the continent."
A sickening tearing accompanied the sight of a tentacle ripping the railing off of the boat. The sinspawn then consumed the metal and roared. I stepped back and gathered myself. We needed an Aeon.
"Valefor..." I sighed, and the lights of her summoning circle surrounded me before four sparks joined each other in the sky. She dove down, clawing at a tentacle returning to grab someone off the deck. The tentacle recoiled, and the sinspawn roared in pain.
"Woah..." Milan said, blinking in amazement, tan hand shielding his eyes from the light. Elaina also had a look of awe on her face. This time- this summoning- was unlike the first one. This was a battle summoning.
"Valefor, please help us!" I cried. She lunged through the air at the monster and swiped at it with her claws. A sickly black blood wept from the scratches as a few pyreflies escaped into the air. It whipped at her with a tentacle, but she was barely fazed.
"Can't Aeons do magic?" Elaina asked. I pondered it quickly; true, magic and summoning were closely linked, but did that mean aeons could do magic? I figured there was no time like the present to find out.
"Please, conjure some Thunder magic!" I cried. Valefor retreated from the fray; gathering together energy from the air itself, a static crackle sounded from her draconic body before a thunderbolt descended from thin air and struck the sinspawn. More pyreflies flew away, and the monster began to retreat.
"Mathys, we're approaching the shore," Elaina said. I nodded, and dismissed Valefor. She flew into the sky and disappeared, as the monster sank into the blue waves and faded from sight.
"That was close..." said Milan. I shook my head.
"It isn't over," I said. "Sinspawn are merely parts of Sin that have fallen off. Sin is nearby." His golden skin almost turned paper white as the blood drained from his face. Elaina looked to the shore.
"Kilika is in danger," she said.
