Chapter Three
The morning arrived too soon. Rydia was still tired, but the ache of the previous day's battle had somewhat abated.
When she drew the covers away from her face she noticed that Cecil was nowhere to be seen, and neither was Kain. Rosa remained in her bed, golden hair splayed out around her like a halo, but Yang was up and gathering his things, few that they were. His eyes caught hers.
"Good morning," he said; his deep voice a comforting sound.
"Good morning," she groggily replied.
He smiled and inclined his head toward the door. "Cecil left earlier to speak to the king and to ask about supplies."
Rydia nodded absently and then pulled her knees up to her chest and stared at Yang with a glint in her eye. Seeming to understand, Yang stopped what he was doing and smiled again, more broadly.
"I know that look. What is it, Rydia?"
She paused, collecting her thoughts. "What…what happened while I was gone?"
To this Yang chuckled.
"What?" she insisted.
"You're asking me when you're the one who came back ten years older."
"You don't seem very surprised, either," Rydia said, somewhat disappointed.
"Everyone else survived Leviathan's attack. I only assumed it would be a matter of time before you appeared again."
"You didn't think I was dead?"
Yang made a thoughtful expression. "I decided you had to be alive after our travels to Troia."
"Why's that?"
"Edward survived," he wryly replied.
Rydia was puzzled, but then grinned wickedly. "Ah."
Yang finished gathering his things and then sat on his bed. "It's been such a strange six months."
"I missed all of you," Rydia confided. "It's been a long time for me."
"Was it really ten years?"
Rydia nodded.
"Were they kind to you?"
Rydia smiled faintly, thinking of Ramuh, Shiva, Black, and the others. "They were."
Yang visibly relaxed. "I'm glad, very glad."
Rydia's smile widened and at that moment Rosa stirred from her bed. Even covered in grime, soot, and her golden hair sticking up in several directions, she still looked like a goddess—a rumpled goddess, granted, but a goddess nonetheless.
"Good morning," Rydia chimed.
Rosa groaned and mumbled a good morning of her own. She didn't speak like a goddess, Rydia mused.
Rosa looked around bewildered. "Where's Cecil?"
Yang hooked a thumb in the direction of the doorway. "Meeting with royalty," he answered.
"Oh, I see." Rosa sat up straighter and ran a hand through tangled hair.
"I think the dwarves have food prepared in the other room," Yang added after a while.
Rydia made a face. "What kind of food do you think they eat?"
"I couldn't say, but I haven't been able to smell anything coming from that direction."
"That doesn't bode well," Rosa commented tiredly, and then in one swift movement, shifted her entire body toward Rydia, as if she had grand things to discuss. All that came out of her mouth, however, was: "Rydia!"
Rydia stared at the other woman expectantly, but Rosa just stared at her without saying anything for several moments. And then everything came out at once.
"Rydia you have to tell me what happened to you! Where did you live? Who taught you magic? Have you really forgotten white magic? Were they good to you?"
Rydia nervously smiled at Rosa and tried to think of where to start, when Yang interrupted again. "Rosa, I think it might be too early in the day for that many questions," he said.
Rosa's disappointment was distinctly visible.
"Don't worry, Rosa, you'll hear about it soon enough," Rydia assured the other woman.
"It's just…when you weren't with Cecil when he rescued me…and after I heard about what happened. Rydia, I…"
"I was alright, Rosa. I'm sorry I worried you," Rydia quickly added.
"I'm so happy you're alive, Rydia," Rosa said a bit tearfully.
Silence fell upon the room until Yang once again decided to intervene. "Why don't we eat something and find Cecil?"
Rydia watched Yang leave the room and rose to follow him. Rosa followed a bit more slowly, combing fingers through her hair in an effort to flatten it. They entered the adjacent room for "breakfast" and found a stone pot filled with some form of colorless odorless soup waiting for them. Rydia's stomach considered retreating back into bed. This did not look appetizing.
It was Yang who braved the unknown. He took a small bowl and dipped it into the soupy mixture, the consistency of which resembled sodden oats, or bread that had soaked too long and become completely liquid. If he was skeptical, Yang let nothing of it be seen on his face and took a sip. Rydia watched as if waiting for him to turn into a frog, but he merely twitched his mustache back and forth and hummed in an undecided fashion.
"It's…unique," he conceded.
Rydia took a bowl next and did exactly as Yang had done. She stared at it timidly before taking a gulp. It slid down her throat like a slug, tasted like mud, and the instant it hit her stomach, it decided retreat was no longer an option, but rather that mutiny was the next order of business. She had to stop herself from retching and turned away, shutting her eyes tightly.
Right around the time she was trying to convince herself to breathe again, she was distracted by Rosa's clear voice.
"Cecil, you're back."
Rydia opened her eyes and saw Cecil standing in the doorway of the room with Kain directly behind him.
Her stomach did a flip flop at the duality of the presences in front of her, the holy paladin, and the turncoat whose true allegiance she'd not yet decided. Cecil approached the table and looked at each of them.
"I've spoken with the king. His forces have already begun moving toward the Tower, and we will follow them. The journey looks to take several days."
"Has Cid fixed the airship?" Yang asked, sounding hopeful.
Cecil shook his head. "He said it would be quite some time before he obtained the right materials."
"Cid?" Rydia asked, trying to ignore her stomach.
Cecil looked at her. "I keep forgetting you never met Cid," he muttered.
"Baron's engineer," Kain supplied from his place behind Cecil. "He came with us, but is busy fixing the ship that was damaged in enemy crossfire."
Rydia's gaze flitted in his direction long enough to nod and acknowledge the information before she returned her eyes to a more comfortable face.
"That's a long way to walk in this heat," Rosa admitted with a sigh, toying with the bowl in her hand and the consistency of the soup in the pot.
"The king insisted that even if we were to have use of the ship, it would only attract the enemy's attention to our presence. The point of this mission is to be as invisible as possible," Cecil explained.
"What about equipment?" Yang asked.
"The armory is on the other side of the castle. The gear there should be more heat resistant," Kain added, speaking more to Cecil than to anyone else.
"We can go now, unless you planned on eating something," Yang suggested.
Cecil looked at the food and made a suspect face. "I'd rather not. I am thankful to the dwarves for their hospitality, but their food leaves much to be desired. I think I still have food from Agart in one of the satchels."
Rydia almost jumped for joy.
"I have no problem with visiting the armory," Rosa announced, setting down her bowl.
"Neither do I," Yang added.
Cecil turned to Kain. "You know where it is," he said, gesturing at the door. "I was in meetings this morning and didn't have a chance to look around."
Kain took his cue, nodded, and returned to the door from where he and Cecil had entered. Rydia followed with Rosa and Yang in tow.
This time as they crossed the castle, Rydia noticed the width of the hallways and staircases. Everything was wide, but fairly squat. Cecil and Kain had to duck to fit under several doorframes. Carpets and tapestries were rare; but etchings, engravings, and jeweled insets adorned the walls and floors in their place. The castle practically glittered. From the look on Rosa's face, it seemed she hadn't had time to admire the castle either without threat of impending danger.
"It's through here," Kain spoke at the head of the line.
They stepped through another doorway and entered a large room with several tables, and many rows of weapons on racks. Two dwarves were in the room; one sharpening a sword, and the other polishing a breastplate of armor. Rydia stared at the armaments in surprise, more at the amount of them than the quality. It took a moment to realize that several of the swords hanging on the walls were glowing with heat.
Cecil walked to the dwarf polishing a suit of armor. The plating glimmered in the candles of the room, but would dwarf armor fit full sized humans?
Cecil began asking after prices. There was some dispute over whether or not armor could be modified, but Rydia didn't pay much attention to the outfitting of the men. She took a moment to walk around the room, looking at weapons and rings and amulets that were all masterfully crafted by the metal smiths among the dwarves. She recognized some of them from her time in the Feymarch, marveling at the extent of materials that had found their way into the hidden realms of the Eidolons. She tried on one of the rings with runes carved into the band. It was small, as if made for a child, and it felt good on her finger.
"It suits you," Rosa said in her ear.
Rydia spun to see Rosa studying the small wares beside her, inspecting each piece as if they were jewels.
"I wonder what the engravings mean," Rosa murmured as she held a ring up to the light and squinted at the inscription.
Rydia eyed the other woman and considered asking her one of the many things she'd been curious about in the past several years. She had waited ten years to ask a thousand questions, and now that she was with them, among them, she had fallen into an old but familiar routine that she was afraid to interrupt, lest she lose momentum. Would Rosa want her to dredge up the past? Would she want to be reminded of her time in captivity? What did she think of Kain? Instead Rydia thought of something else, returning her gaze to the ring on her finger.
"There were many rings like this in the Feymarch. The dwarves' wares have traveled far," she said, hoping to start some kind of conversation.
"They have uses for items such as these in the Feymarch?" Rosa asked, her stare intense.
"Well they live more or less as humans do," Rydia elaborated, trying to figure out all of a sudden how to explain how the Eidolons lived their daily lives.
"Like humans? Don't they set their houses on fire or flood the streets with their magic?"
Rydia stifled a giggle, but only barely managed to suppress it. "They can wear the guises of humans when they choose to, it helps contain their magic, but the whole realm is made of magic and so they have greater control over their own powers there."
Rosa looked at the flame of a candle resting in a sconce on the wall and seemed to be looking somewhere farther away. "I've never seen such raw power unleashed all at once," she admitted. "The Eidolons you summoned, they were powerful indeed."
"They were enraged," Rydia began, "Because Golbez hasn't just been attacking humans, he's tried his hand at the Eidolons as well. Many lives were lost, and they sought revenge. They aren't normally that angry…"
"Was it strange being the only human among them?"
The question took Rydia aback. It had been so long since she'd thought of it as anything but normal to be the only human in the Feymarch. But it hadn't always been that way…she remembered trying to escape, being told that she wouldn't see anyone she had known for at least ten years, and that she was destined to take on the mantle of high summoner as the last of her people. It had been terrifying, startling, angering. She had even tried to escape, but then she remembered that if it hadn't been for Black and Ramuh, she would still have felt like a prisoner.
"It was strange and difficult at first," she admitted. "They didn't trust me, I didn't trust them. It was scary being on my own, but it got better. It took years for me to earn the trust of some, but by the time I left, I learned so much about all of them. Their hurts, their joys, and their dreams. They allowed me to become part of their world for a while, and I'm truly grateful for that. Now it's my turn to fight on their behalf."
"Rydia…"
"I'm not afraid of fire anymore—well, not afraid to use it when I have to, and I will, so long as I can protect innocent people. I returned to fight beside you because it's the best way to end the war. You need a summoner, and I'm the only one left. I'm not a child anymore, and I intend to make myself useful!" Rydia spouted out at once.
When Rosa stared at her mutely, did Rydia stop to realize just how out of breath she was from nearly shouting. She suddenly felt very foolish.
Rosa smiled then, and it was like a sunbeam had lit the room brighter than any of the metal finery. "You always did have a lot of spirit," she chuckled quietly. "That's what I always loved about you, Rydia."
Rydia's embarrassment faded and a grin tugged at the corners of her mouth.
Then, realizing that the ring was still on her finger, she raised her hand and speculatively asked, "Do you think we should buy these?"
"Only if their use outweighs their decoration," Rosa acknowledged.
Rydia craned her neck to look past Rosa. Cecil and Kain were adjusting pieces of armor while the dwarves hovered around them, making adjustments of their own and holding up additional pieces of metal to cover gaps left in the plating. It looked like they were filling in pieces of a puzzle, and when plates fit, the dwarves took them back to their worktables and hammered holes into them in order to fit rings that would join all of the pieces together. A lot of work went into a suit of armor…
Rosa turned to look as well. "I much prefer that armor," she said wistfully.
Rydia looked up at Rosa speculatively. "You really do get a better glimpse of his features without that dark mask," she admitted playfully.
Rosa spun to look at her in shock. "Are you teasing me, Rydia?"
Rydia grinned. "The two of you do go well together, there's no use hiding it."
Rosa smiled and looked at Cecil again. "There were so many times I never thought I would see him again…"
Rydia waited for her to continue, and when she didn't she decided to ask, "Were you afraid?"
"I wasn't really thinking of myself—it was Cecil for whom I worried."
Rydia looked at Cecil and Kain and lowered her voice. "What about Kain?"
Rosa's expression darkened a bit, even though she tried to hide it. "He was different from his usual self. It was as if all of his darkest thoughts had been brought to the surface. I barely recognized him. He wasn't…altogether unkind to me, but I was so relieved when he came to his senses again."
"When he came to his senses?"
"Tellah—that was his name. Edward had spoken of him, and he traveled with the rest of you. He challenged Golbez with a spell, and the force of it broke Golbez's control over Kain's mind."
Rydia took in a sharp breath and felt her throat constrict. "Tellah…when he cast…"
"Meteo," they both said in unison.
The surprise and suspicion on Rosa's face was immediate. "How did you know?" she whispered.
Rydia looked into Rosa's blue eyes. "I saw it happen—in a dream. It's hard to explain it even now. I just…I saw it and I knew what he had done. I didn't know that it had anything to do with Kain, but it was enough to send shockwaves to the Feymarch."
"It was a very brave and foolish thing he did…" Rosa said sadly.
"He wanted to avenge his daughter," Rydia continued. "I just wish…I could at least have said goodbye."
Rosa smiled faintly down at her. "I think in some way he must have known you were watching."
Rydia had never thought of it that way before, but thinking that she might have been of some comfort to him at his end, took away some of the sting of his passing.
"We'll take these," she heard Cecil announce to the dwarf standing beside him, who was admiring the alterations done to the armor. Both Cecil and Kain had been outfitted in the armor that glowed with an inner fire, and even though it looked crude, Rydia had no doubt it was serviceable. Her thoughts returned to the current mission and more immediate concerns.
"I think this ring will suit me just fine," she said to herself. "Why don't we finish gathering supplies?" she suggested to Rosa.
"I agree," the other woman replied. "We have a long way to travel, and we're already behind."
……………………………………………………..
My summer is already half gone :(
Wow, my updating abilities have withered…
In the next chapter the party will actually be traveling! Huzzah!
And I have plans to return to GWnN for a while…I'm so far behind on that fic that I'm not even sure what's going on in it anymore…Need to update it because the stories are all going to start overlapping soon-ish.
Keep it real, peoples, and thanks for reading! :)
