AN: I wanted to write a story exploring the relationships between Edna, Zaveid, and Eizen. This takes place towards the very end of the game, and references the sidequests involving Eizen and the normin. I own nothing.
The first thing Edna did upon waking was to reach for her parasol. It was just a routine habit for her. After living on her own for hundreds of years, she'd learned to keep her weapon of choice right at hand. You never knew when hellions might make their way up the mountainside after all. Although Eizen's presence had typically scared away the larger foes, smaller stragglers weren't to be taken for granted.
A part of her wanted to believe that there had been a reason for this. That a remnant of her brother's former life had still existed in the dragon's mind. That perhaps he had still felt a desire to protect her from harm… and that was why he'd fended off the stronger foes. But aside from that, there hadn't been any signs that her brother may have retained any cognizance of his previous existence. It was just childish thinking.
And then there were the smaller hellions… She could still unpleasantly recall the times when an armadillo would roll the wrong way, or when her alarm clock had been a pair of harpy talons in her face. They were nothing she couldn't handle of course, but there had been a few bad scrapes from time to time. If she got too lost in her own mind, the world around her became a blur, an indistinguishable din of noise and color.
And that was the reason why she had taught herself to hold back on her emotions. If she let them overtake her, it put her at risk, and so she'd become relatively withdrawn into herself. And before she'd encountered Sorey and the others, she'd hardly conversed with anyone. So there had been no need for them, really. They just got in the way.
Only on extremely rare occasions had she left the mountains, but those excursions had always been brief. And the only other seraph who dared to stray into a dragon's territory was Zaveid, but he didn't count. Not like she had ever spoken to him for more than a minute or two anyway. So as a result… she didn't really know the best way to relate to others.
As she reached for the parasol that she had rested along the side of her bed, she found herself grasping at empty air. Leaning over the side of the mattress, she confirmed that it had been misplaced. Or rather… taken she should say. It wasn't like it could just get up on its own. Well all right maybe it could have a couple weeks ago. What with Pheonix the normin feigning as a plushie on her umbrella for all those years. But that whole story was just a headache.
It had been her brother's roundabout way to look after her. Telling Pheonix to keep an eye on her when he knew the inevitable was coming. That he would soon get taken over by the malevolence… and lose himself. That was how dragons were born…
Pheonix's observations were meant to remain a secret, but the little guy wasn't very adept at well, hiding the fact that he was alive. She had practically known the truth from the moment Eizen gave him to her. But she'd continued to humor the normin until only recently.
And although she would have preferred a more proper farewell from her brother, it was… touching to say the least. It touched her to know that Eizen had found a way to reassure himself that she'd be safe. That he wanted to find a way to protect her even when he would soon be gone…
Rising from the bed with a creak, she scanned the room they were staying at. Darkness still filtered in through the windows, so it was still night out. There were several beds arranged in the room where her friends were all still asleep. Rose was conked out on her back, with her pillows and blankets tossed about the floor. It was a wonder how the girl even slept. Lailah was on her side mumbling in her sleep with a singsong tone. And then… there was her favorite sight.
Mikleo was curled up against Sorey's side like an affectionate cat. Sorey had his arm wrapped around him with a content expression on his face. She felt a sneer form on her face. Meebo always snuck next to Sorey every night, but he was too embarrassed to admit to it. As a result he always waited until everyone else was sound asleep. 'Like we don't notice, Cuddleo,' Edna thought to herself while shaking her head.
Standing up, she stopped herself short as a realization hit her. That was right, Sorey wasn't going to be around for much longer. That idiot had such a scatterbrained idea for rescuing the great spirit Maotelus. One that would require him to remain in a comatose state while the spirit regained its strength and succeeded in restoring its blessing over the planet. A feat which would no doubt take centuries to accomplish…
She felt her insides twisting in emotion. At least she had been forewarned of this, at least she time to mentally prepare herself, and at least he would one day return… Unlike Eizen or Dezel… But then there was Meebo and the others as well. Glancing back at him, she saw him involuntarily press himself closer to the Shepherd in his slumber. She felt a bit bad for teasing him now.
In fact, Mikleo had voiced his concerns to her in private, the other night. Closing her eyes, she could still remember their conversation vividly.
"This is Sorey's decision, and I respect that. I also respect that he was comfortable to confide in me. But… I just… I don't know what I'm going to do without him, I…" Mikleo had admitted without meeting her gaze. She had caught him pacing outside in the middle of the night.
This was a feeling she knew all too well. Her years without Eizen had been the worst. But things were much better in Mikleo's case. Because Sorey would return to him one day. With her brother, she'd watched him rampage the mountain peaks for centuries, clinging to the idea that she could find a cure… But she had been avoiding the inevitable. There was no known way to purify a dragon. The only option was death…
And so she had told Meebo the advice she should have told herself, "Don't forget the friends who will still be here with you. And as you may well realize, not all of them will be here to see Sorey again… Don't let that time go to waste. Spend all of the time with our human friends as you can. All of us only have one life after all."
Mikleo had nodded quietly, "I wish that this could last. Our days together our so numbered… I wish that Rose and Alisha would be able to meet him again."
"I know… I share similar feelings. As seraphim, the lives of our human friends may seem like a short blink in our existence, but that doesn't make our time together any less meaningful…" she'd said pointedly, "But whatever you do, don't lose yourself. Reach out to others, they're here to help. We're here to help. I don't want to see anyone else make the same mistakes that I did…"
"Thank you, Edna," Mikleo had said, his voice at a more even tone, "And I definitely won't. I'm going to make the most of our time together. And I'm going to cherish every moment. I think… I'm going to explore the world and carry out Sorey's dream. I want to write my own version of the Celestial Record, an updated version. And then, when Sorey finally wakes I plan to give it to him, and show him everything that I've uncovered."
"I think that sounds like a good plan," Edna had agreed.
"Thank you again, Edna. I feel much better after talking with you." A thin smile had tugged at his lips, tears still gleamed in his eyes, but he had seemed more at peace.
"Don't even mention it, Meebo." The swelling sensation that she had felt deep within her chest was hard to describe. But she was glad that she had been able to console him, even slightly. When she saw that those she cared for were hurting, it was like an arrow straight to her heart. She understood what emotional pain felt like, because she'd endured it for years all alone. Helping her friends… felt good… No one deserved to suffer all alone. And yet she still…
Snapping back to the present moment she became aware of the fact that a certain someone was absent. Zaveid wasn't there snoring up a storm like usual. He was no doubt the most likely contender for the umbrella theft.
With a groan, she slipped into her boots and tiptoed past the others. To her relief, the floorboards didn't make a creak. She chuckled at her own thought. Never would she have imagined holding concern for such seemingly trivial things. Yet here she was worrying over the possibility of disrupting her friends' sleep.
Once she left the room she continued through the inn's lobby at a much more normal pace. The only one awake at this hour was the person working at the counter. She hurried to the door and swished it open… only realizing after the fact that she probably just gave that human a heart attack. Doors didn't typically open on their own of course. Oh well.
Stepping onto the city street, she crossed her arms at the sight in front of her. Her parasol was resting over the shoulder of a certain someone's muscular back. With long wavy strands of gray hair tipped in green flowing down it. To further rub in the point, Zaveid gave her parasol a cute little twirl, which had to be one of the most disturbing things she had witnessed.
"Seeing that leaves such a bad taste in my mouth, I may even vomit," Edna droned.
Zaveid glanced over his shoulder, "Ah Edna dear!" he emphasized far too much, as if he didn't know for a fact that she had been there. "It's a pleasure to see you here under this beautiful star covered sky. Have you perhaps come with the hopes to woo my heart?"
Making a loud gagging sound, Edna said, "In your wildest dreams. Just give that back, will you?" she held out her palm and made a grabbing motion.
"Hmm, oh yah mean this?" Zaveid waved the umbrella to the side, "I suppose I can… if you don't go running inside if I give it back."
Edna narrowed her eyes, "And what in the world is that supposed to imply?" She really wasn't in the mood for any of his games.
"It means…" he said, lowering the umbrella to fold it up, "That I thought you and I could have ourselves a little chat. Whaddaya say?"
"And to what do I owe the pleasure?"
Zaveid let out a cackle, "Oh it's nothing like that! I just thought you could use a talk?" He threw her umbrella in the air and caught it as it landed back down with a twirl. Adjusting his grip to the handle, he offered it to her.
'Ugh, such a showoff.' Edna took it back from him and sighed, "You know you could've just asked." With a quick examination she determined that her normin plushie (a real one) was still attached. Good. Not that she had any particular fondness for it or anything…
"Yeah, but that's just not my style! Where's the fun in that?"
Of course it wasn't. Shaking her head she said, "Anyways… just get to the point."
"I want to know how you're doing kid," Zaveid said with surprising sincerity.
"I'm fine, and don't you "kid" me," Edna nearly hissed. Why did he have to be so annoying?
"Well your reaction says otherwise," he gave her a sideways look which she tried to avoid. "I know you've been worried about the Mikster for starters."
"And what gave you that impression?" Edna wondered. It was true but… how did he know? She wasn't very outward about that.
"I noticed that you're bugging him less and less these days. That's a dead giveaway," he noted with his hand beneath his chin.
Edna didn't offer any further comments so he continued, "I know that you use that playfulness and attitude of yours to try and hide what you're really feeling."
'What?!' Edna unfolded her umbrella over her back and turned away from him. Was she really so obvious?
She had lost her dear brother, her friend Dezel, and soon she'd be losing another friend, although not permanently... She realized that her fear of losing those she cared about was what made her so distant. Why she didn't want to open up, she put up an invisible barrier with her sharp tongue and scathing words.
"Bingo!" he beamed, "I've clearly hit the bull's eye there."
Edna scowled, although from this angle he wouldn't see.
"You know, maybe you can understand how your brother felt a bit better now," Zaveid mused.
"My brother? What do you mean?"
"You and Mik boy."
Oh. She hadn't thought of it that way before… When you compared their ages, Mikleo was still such a baby, only the age of a teenaged human. While Edna had been alive for centuries. Their level of real world experience was so drastic. And that was probably similar to how siblings felt towards each other.
"Someone has to watch out for Dweebo," she muttered.
"Now that's spoken like a true sister."
Sister… she actually liked the sound of that. A blush settled on her cheeks at that thought, and she wanted to slap herself for thinking it. When had she become so soft? She might as well be the normin plushie.
"Come to think of it…" Edna began, "How did you know my brother? I've been meaning to ask…"
Zaveid spoke of Eizen like they had been the best of companions. And yet, she couldn't recall her brother ever mentioning someone like him. But her memories of Eizen were extremely fuzzy… So perhaps he had but she couldn't recount for it.
Letting out a whistle Zaveid walked up to a wall by their right side. He rested his folded arms along the top and glanced back at her, "It's quite embarrassing to be perfectly honest. Although I'm sure you'll get a real kick out of it."
"I'd love to here anything about you getting humiliated, yes," she said bluntly.
"Yowch! Straight to the heart!" he clutched at his chest as if he'd felt pain from her comment. While Edna was shaking her head he continued, "Well I've always been the reckless type. So I decided I was going to climb the summit of Rayfalke Spiritcrest with nothing but my pendulum to fight with. I'd made a bet with my buddies, see."
"Once a showoff always a showoff," Edna commented.
"Damn straight! But anyways, as you can imagine I wasn't exactly prepared for all of the hellions up there. Now I wish I could say that I was bested by an army of fearsome ogres or a swarm of viscous harpies but nope, that wasn't the case."
"You got beaten up by a bunch of armadillos didn't you?"
Zaveid chuckled, "Yeah, pretty much. Before I knew it I was surrounded and then they crashed into me and well, I feel off the side of the cliff."
Edna snorted loudly. Out of all of Rayfalke's hellions he seriously got overwhelmed by the armadillos?
"Thankfully I was able to get a footing on a nearby ledge and was relatively unharmed. However, I had no way to climb back up. And so I did the only thing I could. I screamed for help, for hours."
"What about those "buddies" of yours?"
"Oh them? They heard me, laughed in my face and said they'd go find a rope or something to help me. So I waited. Started singing songs to try and woo any ladies that might pass by. Apparently I sounded like a harpy because I attracted one. But then she swatted at me on sight."
"Huh, serves you right," Edna chuckled.
"And now this is where your brother comes in. As you might have guessed, he found me before my friends got back. Being an earth seraph and all he used his powers to reshape part of the cliff. He made some ledges for me to climb on and I made my way back up!" Zaveid exclaimed.
"And what did my brother think of this?"
"He told me that I'd made the precedent for getting bested by armadillos. Talk about an awful first impression… But we started talking and really hit off. My buddies came back a while after that and that's how we all met. The rest is history," he said, shutting his eyes in recollection.
"Was it a long time? That you knew each other, I mean?" Edna wondered.
"Yeah, all of us were together for years. Ah right, I met Dezel for the first time way back too. He was just a wee kid back then, and told me how cool I was, copying my fighting style... Dezel didn't stay around for long though. Eizen was the sane one among us troublemakers. He'd stop us from doing anything too crazy. He mentioned you a lot too, sweet little Edna. We all had a blast, man those were the days…"
"Really, he did?" Eizen had spoken of her?
"Of course he did! You really were the light in his world. He asked me to look out for you too. Why do you think I always wandered by the mountain range?"
So that was the reason? The thought made her smile. He was still looking out for her, even though he was no longer here. An image came back to her of when she was very small, clinging to Eizen's hand. Her fondest memories of her brother were when he'd show her around the world, telling her all kinds of things. She still remembered even the most mundane pieces of trivia. The name of a flower, or how certain rock formations were created…
Zaveid stood back up to face her, "I made too many mistakes back then, that I won't go repeating. Back then, I was way too focused on myself."
'Back then?' she thought. He still seemed pretty full of himself if you asked her. But she refrained from saying that out loud.
"I was too concerned about what I wanted, what I was feeling," he tucked down Dezel's hat over his eyes, "I started to lose all of my friends to the malevolence; I hadn't even noticed all of the burdens they were carrying. So when they turned I had to kill them, it was the least I could do. They wouldn't want to exist as something they weren't, causing endless destruction…"
Edna grew quieter; she knew that Eizen had made Zaveid promise to kill him when he became a dragon. And she knew the reasoning behind it. Eizen hadn't wanted her to go through all the pain that she had…
"It was just me and Eizen for a while. Sometimes I'd ask him how he was and he'd tell me, "Everything was great!" And I'd believe him. God I was so damn stupid… I only realized the truth when he told me, and by then there was nothing that could be done. You know how that turned out."
Clutching tighter on her umbrella, Edna's knuckles turned white. It had only been nine days ago. Nine days since they'd fought her brother and Zaveid had finally fulfilled his promise. Nine days since he'd died. She could still hear the sounds of his roars, and the rattling of his scales and claws against the stones. How she'd leaped to avoid getting swatted at by his massive tail and how she'd cast her seraphic artes against him…
She shook her head; she didn't want to dwell on that. They'd constructed a tiny grave out of stones for him, and she'd left flowers there for him. And she'd continue to do so, that was her plan. Whenever those flowers might wilt, she was going visit him again and again to bring new ones.
"Anyways…" Zaveid cleared his throat and met her eyes, "My point in telling you all this and bringing you out here… is that I'm not going to let anymore of my friends become hellions. And that includes you."
Did… he honestly mean that? Matching his gaze, she saw no traces of dishonesty in his orange eyes. That was… the truth? She didn't even know how to respond.
"I know Eizen's death has really taken a toll on you," he said slowly, treading careful waters, "Sometimes I hear you crying at night, you know, when the others are all passed out..."
So he'd heard her. Ever since Eizen had died she'd spent every night crying herself to sleep. Whenever she closed her eyes at night she could still see his face, or traces of his voice. It was pathetic really. "I just… I always thought there was a chance that I could see him again… I should've known," her voice was starting to crack now.
"That's where you and I differ. I accepted that he was gone the moment he became a dragon. But we're all different in our mindsets."
"I know Eizen never wanted me to see him like that. And that he wasn't himself, but still…" Despite what he'd been turned into, he had still been her brother.
"Maybe I can tell you my thinking? Now you don't have to agree of course, I'm just throwing this out there. But… I try to forget the memories of my friends as hellions. There's no point in holding onto the painful stuff, if you're going to forget everything that's good. When you think of him, who do you want to remember more, Eizen the dragon, or Eizen your brother?" Zaveid asked with a tip of his hat.
That was an interesting way of looking at things… And he did bring up a valid point. It was sad to realize that her most vivid memories of him were the ones she didn't want to recall. Zaveid could be alarmingly insightful when he strived for it. Why couldn't he be like this more often?
"It still hurts…" Edna whispered, keeping her face low.
"I'd say the fact that you can admit to that is an improvement. I know you've got that pride of yours to uphold or whatever, but there's nothing wrong in being honest with how you feel," he began to step towards her.
"I don't want to bother anyone… they've all got more important things to worry about. They don't need any further problems," she admitted darkly. Everyone was already suffering, why would they want any further burdens on their shoulders?
Mikleo, and Sorey were keeping up a relatively positive mindset despite everything. Lailah did as well, but she was no doubt going to feel so much pain from losing another Shepherd. Rose used similar tactics to herself, but she seemed much more accustomed to battling her problems. And Zaveid just lived things in the moment she was learning now. Where did that leave her?
"Now I wouldn't go so far as to say that. You're just as important as any of us. We've all got each other's backs, don't go forgetting that."
"Am I?" She'd meant it as a rhetorical question, one more meant for herself.
Stopping a foot in front of her, Zaveid answered, "Of course you are. You're our sweet little Edna, and you're precious to all of us."
She opened her mouth to reply but no words came out. Her throat felt tight, and what was this feeling in her heart? Her chest was all tingly. 'Oh no…' she thought, 'Don't cry, you are not going to cry.' Biting her lip, she tried to stop that pricking sensation from her eyes, to no avail. She felt the first tear fall. 'Dammit.'
Zaveid extended his arms in a broad sweep, and Edna placed her umbrella down to embrace him. Normally she would have rejected such a gesture, but this was a rare exception. She was already crying now, so what was the point? Zaveid pat her back soothingly with his large hands for a few minutes until she was drained.
Stepping away from him, she rubbed her arm across her eyes and picked up her umbrella. "You know, I hate to say this… but thanks." Somehow everything felt… lighter? Easier?
"Ooh, I never expected to hear such a thing from dear Edna, I'm touched!" he trilled.
Sighing Edna said, "Never mind, I spoke too soon. Also, take a bath you reek."
Gasping out loud, Zaveid shuffled up to her side, "Come on, I was mildly joking."
"Mm-hmm," she hummed. He'd completely meant that, and she couldn't be convinced otherwise.
"But Edna, if you'd ever like to reminisce, I've got tons of stories on Eizen. Trust me; you haven't heard the half of it! Oh gosh, there was that one time we all snuck inside a restaurant and swiped food off of plates while no one was looking… And then Eizen made us clean up the whole place when we were done. Oh, or that time Eizen got his weapon tangled in a bush…"
She smiled; those were stories that she'd certainly have to hear. "I'll remember to take you up on that offer. Thank you, Zaveid."
This time Zaveid bowed in response, "Anything for my lady Edna."
Making sure he could see her dramatic eye roll, she headed back to the inn. How Zaveid could manage to be so irritating one minute, and so tolerable the next was a mystery to her.
Trying to ignore your problems wasn't an ideal way of handling things, she realized now. But things were slowly improving for her. And it was all thanks to the support of her friends. Bonds with other people truly were something to be desired. Now that she'd gotten a taste of it once again, she couldn't imagine spending another day by herself.
Being surrounded by friends who cared and stayed by her despite it all… that was amazing. She never would have guessed that this is where she'd be a year ago. Her days of solitude were over.
And so long as she still walked this land and breathed its air, her brother's mark on the world would never leave. A part of him would always live on through her memories and nothing could take that away. 'This world can be cruel… but I won't let it conquer me again. And with that resolve, she was prepared to face the oncoming days.
AN: Thanks for reading!