Chapter 4: Trials
The door shut behind them. Zolono's face was no longer visible. Now it was just the apprentice summoner and her guardians. In a short time, Lady Yocun would officially become Summoner Yocun. It was all that she was thinking about as she came into the Cloister. Barton was feeling a bit preoccupied watching Yocun as she thought about her future. He couldn't take his eyes off her, and it wasn't just because of his crush. Silva, however, was looking ahead. There was nothing in front of them.
"A patch of ice," she said. It seemed to snap the other two out of their daydream. We're dealing with a cloister of trial. It is one of the most difficult duties a summoner and her guardians must venture through. We must stay focused. Please try to stay focused with me. Our first problem is what to do with three walls of ice and one door behind us surrounding us."
Yocun snapped back to attention and stepped in front of her guardians. She placed her bare hand of the wall of ice in front of her and it slowly began to melt, but the form in which it began to melt appeared very odd than regular ice melting. It was melting only in specific places. After a few seconds, the melting stopped, leaving only three holes big enough for all three to fit into.
"Does the cloister expect us to separate?" Barton asked. "Wait? Can cloisters think?"
"Cloisters. Aeons. Fiends," Silva said ominously. "They are all very different and yet basically the same. They are rules by pyreflies and just like I described to you in the woods, the pyreflies gives its manifestation impulses that mimic human thought. Yes, the cloister can think. It perceives that there are three people standing at its entrance and it had instinctually melted three holes, one for each of us. Yes. The cloister expects us to separate. We will not be able to complete this trial unless we do what is expected of us."
Barton sighed and leaned his head into the far left hole. It was a slide the curved to the left, so he was unable to see much. Silva looked into the right hole and found the same thing, except her slide veered to the right. Yocun saw that the middle hole led directly into a room without a slide. The only thing she could assume was that they were elevated, and that if she were to enter the middle room, she would be on a higher elevation that her guardians. Silva and Barton both understood that, but the latter still had reservations about splitting up.
Yocun took the initiative and climbed into the middle room. The wall immediately sealed up behind her. Barton jumped, but Silva remained stoic. "You don't care that out summoner just got locked into a room of ice?"
"I do care, Barton," she replied. "She'll be safe. The cloister would not put her in a danger that she could not get out of. It is up to us to do that."
"We should at least get her out of there."
"I won't do that for a few reasons. Firstly, I don't have my spear with me. I forgot to get it out of the side of the temple wall last night. I assume it's still there. Secondly, even if I had my spear, we'd be breaking the rules of the cloister. It would just get mad, in a sense. Finally, that wouldn't prove anything. If we take shortcuts through the cloister, then how are were expected to defeat Sin?"
Silva didn't give Barton any more opportunity to complain. Immediately after finishing her sentence she leapt into the right hole. Barton, still distressed, slid into the left hole.
Yocun had not heard any of the conversation on the other side of the ice wall. She was surrounded by ice and the room she was given was not enough for her to sit. She kept her nerves calm, but vigilant. Mastering the cloisters was one part of the training that she did take seriously. Injuries happen. Death happens. Yocun studied all of the temples and their cloisters, at least what could be known about them from previous accounts from guardians and summoners. The cloister changes, but it has definitive traits that don't change. Instantaneous ice was one trait that was always prevalent. Macalania spheres placed in specific holes created them.
Injuries and deaths came in two ways. The first was hypothermia. Unless the summoner party was completely inept, it was usually minor. It was caused by a person being trapped in ice and not being freed in time, much like Yocun was. She wasn't afraid of that. She knew her guardians would prevail. It was being skewered by a piece of ice that worried her more. They could pop up at any time.
Barton landed on his feet to find himself in yet another square room. However, in front of him was a wall of ice with a green glyph sphere in a small hole on the wall. "Can anyone hear me?" He yelled.
Silva could hear him. She had landed in her own room, but it had a path way the led straight to a door, a door familiar to her as the door that led to the chamber of the fayth. The pathway did her no good unless Barton and Yocun were with her. "Yes. I can hear you, Barton."
Barton could not hear Silva. The chamber controlled the movements of sound, and it was Yocun who heard Silva's response. "Silva," she said. "I did not hear Barton say anything. Are you with him?"
The sound was traveling in a circle, as Barton heard Yocun's reply. "Hold on," he said. "Silva heard me, but I didn't hear her say anything back. So that means Yocun heard Silva and I heard Yocun."
"Yocun," Silva said, readily understanding Barton's explanation. "I can hear Barton, you can hear me, and Barton can hear you. We must work together to pass this. Tell Barton we both understand and that I am standing in front of a pathway that leads to the chamber of the fayth."
Yocun acknowledged this and relayed the message to Barton. In turn, Barton described his room to Silva, who relayed it to Yocun. Yocun did the same. Yocun said, "Barton, you are the only one in a room with anything useful. I suggest removing the glyph sphere to see what happens. Tell Silva before you do anything." Barton did as ordered and Silva replied her approval through Yocun. Barton took a deep breath and removed the glyph sphere. The path behind Barton opened up and the path in front of Silva closed.
"Okay," he announced. I now have a path that leads to door. "Silva," what's changed over there?"
"The sound is coming to me, Barton," Yocun replied. "Silva. Does that mean the circle has gone around?"
"Yes," Silva said. "Barton. Tell Yocun that the circle has reversed. Yocun can hear you, I can hear Yocun and you can hear me."
"Okay," he replied. "I think I've got it now." Barton began to walk forward down the path, finding two blue Macalania spheres on the wall to his left. He related this to Yocun, who related it to Silva. Through Silva, Yocun told him to take out the left one. This caused the path in front of Silva to open back up again. They checked and made sure that the sounds had not shifted. Silva walked forward and found no Macalania spheres on her side, so Barton took out the second Macalania sphere, opening up a pathway leading down for Silva.
Barton called out, and Yocun heard him. Yocun said something, but it was not Silva who heard her. The sound was redirected back to Barton. "This isn't good," Yocun said. "I don't know if she can hear us or not, but the fact is we can't hear her. She's secluded for now. It's in her hands."
Silva waited for over a minute to hear someone's voice. She stayed calm, and made the rational assumption that the fayth was controlling the flow of sound to the point that she understood that her area was not receiving any sound. She descended into the pathway, finding a Macalania sphere. She had no choice but to take it. She didn't know what else to do. Silva pulled the Macalania Sphere out of its hole, opening a pathway leading down from Barton side. Barton traversed the path to see that it led to the underground room where Silva was. However, a thin sheet of ice separated them.
"Can you hear me?" she said. Barton shook his head. He pointed down to a small hole in the sheet of ice which the sound was not passing though, but was just the perfect size to fit a sphere through. As they spoke, they heard nothing from Yocun. It was her turn to be secluded. Silva signed for Barton to push the glyph sphere through the hole, since putting a Macalania sphere in that hole would have done nothing. He pushed it through and Silva placed it into the empty hole.
The openings that led the two guardians under the ice closed up behind them. However, Yocun's room was finally open in front of her. The path led straight to the door, with the floor being transparent. Below her, she could see her comrades separated from her and each other. She knocked on the floor until she got their attention. Sound was no longer traveling anywhere. She signed for Silva to remove the glyph sphere. The openings behind the guardians opened up again, they returned to the top floor and ever though they could not see each other, they walked forward in confidence that they were all walking in the same direction to the same room with the same goal.
"No offense, but I didn't think it would have taken you have long at it did. I really overestimated you guys." That was the first thing the group heard as they opened their respective doors. Sitting directly in front of the chamber of the fayth throwing a small hacky sack ball into the air was the bothersome brat herself, Gillespie.
"Great," Barton said. "We just started this pilgrimage and we're going to get excommunicated because we broke the most taboo law of all. Only summoners and their guardians are allowed back here, Gillespie! Don't you know how much trouble you're going to get in? How much trouble we're all going to get in?"
She ignored him. She moved to the side of the door as Yocun walked silently to the chamber. "The fayth awaits," Gillespie said mockingly with a smirk on her face directed poignantly at Barton as she bowed her head to Yocun as she walked by as if she were a butler or a valet. Silently, Yocun entered the chamber of the fayth.
"This isn't my first time going through the cloister," Gillespie said. "You think I could have does this so easily without practice? Please. I have years of practice."
"Don't you fear Yevon? Don't you at least respect the teaching?"
"There's a time for piety and there's a time for fun," she replied. "This is a time for fun."
"It's useless arguing with her," Silva finally said. "Gillespie came into the cloister today for an obvious reason. She doesn't want Yocun to leave on her pilgrimage. However, she knows Yocun will not give up her pilgrimage, so she decides that she will tag along. The only way a person can tag along with a summoner is if she is a guardian."
"This brat does not respect the teachings of Yevon! She has no place in this pilgrimage!" he exploded. Gillespie just stuck her tongue out at him.
"She doesn't, and yet she's already secured her place as a guardian on Lady Yocun's pilgrimage," Silva explained. "Since we are sworn by Yevon to uphold his teaching, we cannot ignore this transgression. We must inform Father Zolono. Gillespie knows this rule. She knows all the rules related to the teachings. A Yevon priest raised her after all. Are you following me so far, Barton?"
He nodded his head. "Good," she continued. "She knows that she will be punished, and she knows that the punishment will be severe. However, Yocun also knows that the punishment will be severe and more importantly, Gillespie knows that Yocun knows that the punishment will be severe. We've already seen the lengths that Yocun has gone to and will go to in order to coddle Gillespie and keep her out of harms way. Yocun will do anything to protect the precious miracle child who survived an encounter with Sin."
"And that includes making her a guardian so that her entering the cloister suddenly becomes acceptable and she escapes punishment yet again."
"Very good, Barton. You followed along very well this time."
"We can't let it happen," he pleaded.
"It will happen," she said. "There is no way around it. I admit that I do not like Gillespie's bratty attitude, but we must consider that she is a black mage, and a black mage is something that we are missing on our pilgrimage. The ability to take down flans and elements without spending all our money on marbles and gems will be a much appreciated addition to our team."
"We can find another black mage," he insisted.
"Macalania is bone dry when it comes to fighters. You and Yocun know this. Our next city is Guadosalam, and it's not like the Guado are willing to protect a human summoner. Then we don't hit a real town until Djose. Do you want to wait until Djose to recruit a black mage, or to you want to stomach the brat who, for her age, is very skilled in the art of black magic, or so I've been told?"
Barton would not answer her question out of spite. He just remained silent at the other end of the room. Silva was not bothered by Gillespie's physical presence and kept her position as she anticipated Yocun's completion. Gillespie didn't stand still, but she didn't wader over to where Barton was standing. Barton was not the kind of person to become angry easily, but it was serious when he did and even Gillespie knew not to toy with him in this state.
Hours passed. Barton entertained himself with a game of solitaire. Silva watched him, which Barton did not find odd. Gillespie was the only one who did not have anything with which to occupy her time. The hours seemed endless to her until they finally came to an end and the door to the cloister of trials suddenly popped open.
Yocun stood at the doorway. Her eyes seemed empty and drained. Her guardians, including the pseudo-guardian, had no idea what to do, as they had no idea what to expect. Even Silva stood unknowingly and wasn't hiding that fact from the other two. Yocun took a step forward. They suddenly realized she had her sword in her left hand. Now the guardians were on edge. Yocun lifted the sword in front as if ready to battle. Her guardians, even Gillespie, jumped back in preparation.
Yocun didn't move, and after a few seconds, the gang began to lower their defenses, but not entirely. The sword began to shine brightly. The guardians shielded their eyes until the sword's shine dissipated. They looked to see that Yocun's sword was no entirely encased in ice.
"I've done it," she said. "I have become a summoner."