The cloister is clearly off-limits to the party. The only people in the main room are a few half-masked Machine Faction workers. They look up from the twitching machina they're working on as I enter. I give a sheepish grin and a wave. They wave back cheerily and go back to the machina. Huh. Guess there are some perks to being Cid's daughter after all.
Staying in the main room would be pretty pointless since I'm trying to hide, so I make my way forward. I stare into the pedestal room briefly. Nah. I went through all the trouble of sneaking in here. I might as well go up the stairs.
I run my hand along the stone wall, bending back my fingers to keep my nails from rasping on the material. I wasn't with Yunie when the group went through, back when the cloisters really mattered. I can still feel the memories, though. These walls are marked with the sweat and tears of Summoner groups through the ages. Even though I've always hated the cycle of killing, the pilgrimage is something I can't tear down, not after living it. It's really weird to see machina and the occasional Al Bhed sprawled out. It's not like with Zanarkand, sacred ground for me. This is not wrong, just…off.
It's the voices that bring me back to the ground, Al Bhed phrases coming up from the Chamber of Fayth. The Machine Faction doesn't work in the chamber, does it? They've never done it before. Besides, the entrance to the farplane is still there, right? Even if the entrance closed, it's still a huge hole. It wouldn't just disappear. That'd make it pretty hard to get any kind of work done, right?
I step onto the lift that will take me to the Chamber, hoping the noise won't be noticed. There's no break in the voices. The words become more clear as I near the top.
"…oayr, pid fa cdemm tuh'd ghuf ruf du dyga dra bonavmeac fedr ic." Yeah, but we still don't know how to take the pyreflies with us.
"Fa'mm funno ypuid ed frah dra desa lusac. Fa'na zicd rana du muug, nasaspan?" We'll worry about it when the time comes. We're just here to look, remember?
"Oui, pid—"
"Tuh'd luhlanh ouincamv fedr dra bonavmeac." Don't concern yourself with the pyreflies. The third voice is smooth and bad, somehow. I move off the lift, leaning against the wall so I can't be seen from the doorway. "Tuh'd oui dnicd sa du dyga lyna uv oui?" Don't you trust me to take care of you?
"Uv luinca, cen." Of course, sir. The guy that was worried is all respectful now. Take care of you? What's that mean? None of the voices sound too old or young. Is this some new group? What're they doing with pyreflies?
"Uhla E ryja dra dalrhelym ycbaldc cundat, dra nacd femm vymm bydeahd, so teclebma. Fryd fa lnyja femm pa eh uin ryhtc jano cuuh." Once I have the technical aspects sorted, the rest will fall together. Be patient, my disciple. What we crave will be in our hands very soon.
"Oac, sycdan." Yes, master.
"Huf lusa, mad ic mayja drec bmyla. E vayn ev fa mehkan yho muhkan, fa syo pa teclujanat. Ev fa ryjah'd paah ymnayto." Now come, let us leave this place. I fear if we linger any longer, we may be discovered. If we haven't been already.
Uh-oh! Those are some ominous tones. It figures I'd run into something like this! I never seem to think of what happens after when I'm in the middle of something. What will this master guy do if he finds out someone discovered him? Nothing good for me, that's for sure.
As soon as I start to panic, I feel it. There's a hum in me, the call of power that comes in a mage dressphere. What does this thing want me to do, fight? There's only one of me and at least three of them, and they sure don't sound too stable. Unless…hadn't Shinra said something about sneaking? That's a pretty far shot, but it's not like I've got a whole lot of choices, here. I close my eyes and let the humming power release, hoping it's not some kind of exploding spell.
It shimmers, much like the dressphere, but nothing really happens. Before I can even think about what to do next, there's the noise of people entering the room. My head whips towards them as I pull out my staff.
There areonly three of them, and their outfits are strange. They look pretty Al Bhed, the typical yellow and black design that most of the guys choose, but instead of light armor they're robes. On their faces are masks, but not normal Al Bhed masks. These cover the entire head, with thick, dark lenses that are impossible to see through and a longer snout that doesn't look like the usual gas mask. Two of the masks are black, but the one on the tallest guy is a pure white. As I notice this, he looks right at me.
Or past me?
"Hu uha amca ryc paah rana," White Mask declares. No one else has been here.
Shocked, I look down at myself. Instead of my body, I see only the wall. Sneaking!
"Let us leave." White Mask speaks Spira's native tongue for the first time. He has no accent. He crosses the room until he's right next to me.
I hold my breath, wondering if he can see through it after all, but he just removes this green thing that looks like half a sphere and presses it to the wall. The whole area next to me pulses green, and there's a whirring sound. I turn my head as slowly as I can towards the noise and bite down hard on my lip to stop from gasping. There's a hole in the wall! But it's not really a hole, is it? It's a dark swirl, big enough for a person to walk through. And, hey, wouldn't you know it, that's exactly what they do. Once the third one is through, the whirring turns into a hum and the not-hole disappears.
"Okay, what just happened?" The room doesn't seem to know any more than I do. Not that I blame it. Weird guys in Al Bhed robes, something I've never seen before, talked about technical aspects and pyreflies, two things that have nothing to do with each other, and I turned invisible, something I've definitely never seen before. I'm still invisible, actually.
The power is something I know I could shut off easily, but instead of away I call it forward and take a step away from the wall. My boot, leg, and then body become visible with the leaving. The power fades away. So I can only use it to blend. It'd be way more cool if I could be invisible all the time. Maybe that'll happen if I train this dressphere up? "Aw, man, I need to go pick some fights!" I tell the room.
"You can start with me if you wanna." They came back. Staff blade out, I rush towards the voice.
A hand snaps up to stop the blade. Gloved hand, warm fingers, familiar grip. The voice registers as I lift my head to meet the gaze of a single eye. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Guess you're taking up my offering."
"You scared me." I struggled to drop my arm. His hand holds it there. "I'm not gonna kill you, y'know."
"Coulda fooled me." Gippal doesn't move his hand. "What are you doin' in here, Cid's girl? Party's not enough entertainment for you?"
"No, I—" Can't explain it. I can't tell him I came up here to run away from him. I lift my chin haughtily, channeling Leblanc to make up for the fact that I'm making it up as I go along. "Lots of people wanna talk to me, y'know. I saved the world twice. I needed a break from talking to everyone, so I came in here."
"Uh-huhh." He scans my face for a long moment, and I try my best to remain haughty. His eye narrows. He doesn't believe me. "So ya seen the hole?"
"The what?"
"The hole. Y'know. The big one in the ground."
"Uhh. Nope. Haven't been in any of the chambers since the whole saving Vegnagun. It's still there, right? I mean, a hole can't just disappear."
"Yep, still there. Dunno if it still leads to the farplane, and I don't wanna take the chance of jumpin' to my death." He lifts a brow. "Wanna see it?"
"Uh, not really. I mean, it's just a hole, and besides it's not like the hole has a bunch of good memories, and—"
"Riight." He takes a step towards the chamber, dragging at my arm. "C'mon, Rikku. Let's take a look."
"Y'know, it'd be really nice if you went ahead and let go of my arm," I mutter, but I follow him. Why is he dragging me to the stupid hole? He hasn't talked to me in months and all of a sudden he wants to look into the mess that Shuyin made? For what? To be all buddy-buddy about old times? Yeah, no thanks.
"Here we are. Did you ever jump in this one?" He drops his hand. For a second, I let my arm hover, staring at him, and then I let it fall.
"Nah. Yunie decided on the one in Bevelle." I rub at the place where his hand gripped my forearm. It doesn't hurt, but the spot is weirdly cold. "Did you?"
" 'Course I did, more than once. Easiest access, right?" He smiles, but his gaze feels sharp.
"Uh, right." I turn away from him and stare into the hole. It doesn't look like much, just a giant, black space in the ground, surrounded by a few shimmering pyreflies. "It's gotta still lead to the farplanes, though, right? I mean, the pyreflies are still here."
"There aren't as many, though. Maybe they just don't know where else to go." He rubs at the back of his neck and adds quietly, "I know how that goes."
My head tilts towards him, but he's looking at the wall. It's a weirdly personal thing for Gippal to say. I turn away, deciding it's best not to say anything, and step forward until I'm at the edge of the mouth of the thing. Darkness. I kneel, leaning forward. "Wow, you still can't see a thing in here," I say. My voice echoes faintly.
"Don't stand so close to that thing!" His footsteps scuttle closer to me.
I turn to smirk at him. "Pssht, whatever. I'm the master of balance, Gippal."
"Aren't you the one that caused the machina malfunction on the Highroad? Y'know, by losing your balance and falling onto a machina?"
"I was on very tall ruins," I mutter. "That's totally different." I lean back on my heels, staring back into the recess. "Hmm. There's a way besides jumping in to see if it still goes to the farplane."
"Oh? And what's that?"
I dig around my dress until I find a small pouch and retrieve a spare iron bangle. "Drop stuff," I chirp. "C'mere. You've gotta be closer to listen."
More shuffling noises, and he kneels down next to me, not quite as close to the mouth as I am. "You sure you wanna toss that away?"
I snort. "Please. These are easy to come by, and you know it."
"Yeah, yeah. Just drop the bangle, master explorer."
"You got it," I chirp, ignoring the sarcasm. After all, I really am a master explorer. I shift to my knees for better balance, reach my arm out and—drop! I lean my body over the mouth of the hole to watch the thing spiral down into darkness. It spins out of sight, but there's no noise that bounces back to let me know it's landed.
"Looks like it hasn't closed up," Gippal proclaims. "At least, not anywhere close by."
"Or maybe you didn't wait long enough and your voice covered it up," I retort. I brace my hands on the edge of the hole and lean forward, my braid hanging into the recess. I know there's some kind of light shining from the farplane, but I can't see a thing. Could it be seen before? I didn't lean in this far before.
"Whoa, hey!" The sudden explosion of noise startles me and my hands lose their grip, leaving my body to slide forward out of control. It's not even for a second, because right after the noise come thick arms around my waist that yank me backwards.
I snap my head backwards to look at Gippal. "What—were you doing?" I don't sound as aggressive as I want to because I can't get control of my breathing. Near-death experiences are not good for the body.
"What was I doing? What were you doing?" he snaps. He doesn't have nearly as hard a time with aggression. His arms tighten around my waist as he glares. "You don't know what's down there! What if the farplane wasn't there to slow you down?"
"I wasn't gonna jump!" I retort. "I just wanted to know if I could see the farplane light!"
"If you can't see it from where you were, what makes you think leaning in is gonna do you any good?" His voice is muffled behind clenched teeth. "You almost fell in!"
"I did not!" I struggle against his arms. For a second, his hold tightens, but then he practically throws me off his lap. I jump to my feet and whirl around. "I totally had my balance until you decided to yell at me! I was fine!"
He's on his feet, too, lumbering towards me angrily. My body moves back automatically. Traitor. "You were not fine!" he snaps. "You were—that was—" He stops, throwing his hands into the air before crossing them.
"That was what, Gippal?"
He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "Too close," he says softly. "That was too close." His face is calm, almost cold. "Well, did ya find what you were looking for?"
"What?" He's still mad. This is a different kind of anger, though. It reminds me of Paine—but no, Paine is more scary than this, still ready to snap. He's just cold. "The light, you mean? I couldn't see anything but black."
"Then I guess that was for nothin', huh?" He smirks at me. "Try not to get yourself killed over something this dumb. It's just a hole, remember?"
"I—you—ugh!" Good comeback, Rikku. Super eloquent. The foot stomp I give adds to the total picture of maturity.
"You should get out of here. The cloister is closed to the party." His tone is casual, but it's clear that he means business.
My jaw drops. He stares at me for a moment longer and then turns his back to me, towards the chamber. Well, then. Guess I'm not getting any explanation, there. "Enjoy your hole," I mutter, turning towards the lift.
The thing whirs to life and carries me down. I'm not going to give him the satisfaction of looking up to see if he watches me. The visit to the cloister is a confusing mess, but there are a couple of clear points. The first is that those robe guys are bad news. I dunno what they're doing with the pyreflies or that hole, and I don't know what that thing they used on the wall is, but none of it can add up too well.
The second thing is at least a little more clear. I don't know what his issue is, but it's obvious that Gippal doesn't want much at all to do with me.