Lady of Fortune

Chapter Three

Rikku hugged Tromell. "Master Tromell."

Tromell hugged her back. "Good to see you again, Lady Rikku."

Rikku stepped away from the short, stout Guado who looked more like an old man than most old men she knew. That was the problem with being from a race of blondes. Blonde hair may turn white but it still looked blonde. "Any news?"

Tromell shook his head. "None. I was about to take a walk to Macalania Woods and check the trees. It is fading so quickly." He sighed.

Rikku smiled at him. "Then I'll walk with you and we can talk. I've had some thoughts since last time and want to go to Bevelle to confirm them."

Tromell wrung his hands. "Bevelle, are you sure?"

Rikku hooked her arm around his and changed to a different weapon sphere. It was a romper ensemble with an overlaying 'vest' type of layer with large slashed balloon sleeves. It had a thick belt that buckled up the front and came with all things a katana hidden in an umbrella. It was a green and cream ensemble with pink and yellow flowers from the cacti in Sanubia for accents. She opened the umbrella and put it over their heads as they walked out of Guadosalam and onto the Thunder Plains.

"I was at a ruin yesterday. I saw something in context so to speak and walking helps me think." Rikku said.

Tromell sighed. There was no good news. "We've had no luck stabilizing the Farplane Viewer. The energies are fluctuating too rapidly for us to get a handle on them. It wasn't this bad before that machina ripped holes open at the temples. But it keeps, degrading I guess, ever since. We're no further and I'm out of ideas."

Rikku grimaced. "This did all start before Vegnagun. We've been focused too much on that and not focused enough on why it all started, the death of Sin and the draining of the Aeon statues."

"I'm afraid that too much knowledge has been lost since the war."

"Or it's been hidden. Did Seymour move anything to Bevelle?"

"I'm not sure. I wasn't in charge of the libraries back then." Tromell shook his head. "I was merely a functionary. Those who would know are most likely dead during the last war on Sin or after."

"St. Bevelle, the home of too many damn secrets," Rikku made a face in distaste. "Well, they can't keep me out. I'm a Guardian. They won't dare."

"Praetor Baralai."

"Praetor Baralai is at a very important meeting in Mushroom Rock Road today." Rikku said lightly. "Where there are sure to be arguments that last for hours and in the end nothing will get done. I have Dachi recording for me." Bless Shinra, he'd managed to sneak a sphere network camera into the meeting room and made it look like part of the decorations. "And I'm sure there are several parties that will be willing to tell me about it in detail and at length as they complain."

Tromell chuckled.

"I have my sources," Rikku lowered her voice as if this was some great confidence.

Tromell smiled.

"No. This started when Yuna defeated Yevon and the Aeons faded." Rikku nodded. "And that's when the Farplane Viewer broke too?"

"Yes, immediately." Tromell's voice turned musing. "It's not really a place in this world. The Farplane isn't someplace you can get to just by digging deep enough. Or else we'd be seeing our dead all of the time. It is quite literally another plane of existence where the dead reside. In order to get there, you have to create or force a portal."

Rikku pressed her lips together. That sounded a lot like the plane where the Essences of all Things resided. It wasn't a place a mortal could get to without using magic and opening a portal to it. "Vegnagun was deep inside the Farplane. Much deeper than I thought possible. It'd ripped a way there somehow, using magic, despite being a machine. The people of Bevelle created it to defeat Zanarkand. They put magic into the working. It was to them a stop gap against the Summoners of Zanarkand. But they made it too smart, too sensitive and couldn't use it."

Tromell shuddered. "Our viewer was controlled. What Vegnagun did was horrible."

"But, Tromell, there are no real markers in the Farplane. Nothing to tell you where the edges meet with the earth of Spira, if they meet with Spira. How did Vegnagun know where the aeon statues were precisely enough to dig holes to them and use the statues to enslave the spirits of the Aeons in the Farplane?"

"Well, the Aeons were spirits of the dead," Tromell murmured.

"Yes. That might be the answer. They were spirits of the dead. They should have been in the Farplane, and instead were enslaved to the statues but they created Summons out of magic, things much greater than themselves should have been able to do. They had to be linked to the Farplane. Maybe the portals were already there, helping to stabilize the flow of pyreflies back into Spira."

"Or creating instability because the Aeons were unnatural." Tromell offered.

"The pyreflies come back through water." Rikku murmured and looked up at the sky. "That is one thing that the Farplane had plenty of. They leave through water and return through water. If creating the Aeons disturbed that cycle because they were drawing on the power of the Farplane simply to exist. Then when they faded, and if Vegnagun was able to find them so easily."

Tromell looked over at her. "You seem to be on to something."

"The portals were never closed." Rikku finished. "And so it created an instability and the pyreflies and magic that Macalania needed to exist were escaping through the portals." She half smiled at him. "See, I told you walking helps me think. I'll want to see if I can confirm it with Bevelle. Surely, they must have records on how the Aeons were created."

Tromell shook his head. "We had no part in that, Miss Rikku. We were newcomers to Yu Yevon before Sin fell."

Rikku patted his arm with her hand. "I know, Master Tromell. Seymour did many horrible things to all of us."

"I should have stopped him. So many Ronso and Al Bhed, your people, would still exist. My people would not have been slaughtered in vengeance. It would have averted so much anger and pain." Tromell's voice turned sad.

Rikku glanced over at him. "You couldn't have. He was a powerful Summoner. In the end, he bonded with pyreflies and machina. He changed his very self, his very shape. It took all of us in Yuna's company to defeat him. The Guado need you. Spira needs you."

Tromell smiled tremulously at her. "You're very kind."

They stepped out of the Thunder Plains and into Macalania.

Tromell sighed again. "See how the colors fade. We don't have much time."

"All the more reason for me to get to Bevelle." Rikku said. She bit her bottom lip. "Tromell," She said softly. "Will it be terrible if the only answer means sealing off the Farplane forever in order to save the rest of Spira?"

Tromell stared at the words, the blue trees, the glittering crystals chiming in the faint breeze. Butterflies hovered over plants. "No. I suppose not." He said. He smiled at her. "You Al Bhed believe that the dead should remain separate from the living."

Rikku nodded. "We keep their spirits alive in our minds and our hearts." She touched her forehead and her chest.

"While for many, the Farplane Viewer offered them a final moment of solace, for others, it became a way to cling to those that were gone." Tromell looked up at the sky. "Like so many other things that are changing, I will not grieve if we put our guardianship of the Viewer to rest. I would grieve the loss of these woods."

"So would I," Rikku said. "And so would Yuna and Tidus even if they aren't here to say it." She winked at Tromell. "I have it on good authority they shared their first kiss in these woods."

Tromell grinned and laughed again.

Rikku sobered. "I just wanted to be sure. I don't know what the answer is. I'm sure we'll find it and I hope that closing off the Farplane is the extreme answer and not the true one."

Tromell bowed to her. "Then may luck bless your search."

Rikku felt a slight tingle all over her body. She bowed back to him and smiled. "Have a good day, Master Tromell." She said. "May the spirits of the wood be not as faded as you fear."

They went their separate ways, she down the path towards Bevelle and he took to the tree road to check the different springs.

The guardians of Bevelle ignored her as she passed them and onto the great bridge that led to the Palace of St. Bevelle. Not wishing to walk the length of it, she took one of the small lifts down to the other end.

A bald man in the robes of a Yevonite priest met her just inside the doors of the temple. He smiled at her, but didn't bow. He no longer cared for such things. "Guardian Rikku, how pleasant to see you again."

Rikku smiled back. "Brother Mep."

"I'm afraid Praetor Baralai isn't here today." Mep said in a lowered voice.

"I know." Rikku smiled at him. "I met him on the road to Mushroom Rock, big meeting, very important. I probably should have gone but no one seems to have invited me. Not to worry, I'm sure we'll get more done here without him."

Mep's lips twitched. "How may I help you today? Would you like to review the weekly sphere offerings? Though you're a few days early for that."

"Actually, I'd like to go to the library." Rikku said and strode forward. "I come seeking old information and secrets, not new information that Baralai would prefer were secrets."

Mep did smile. They got into one of the lifts and it went upwards. "How is the blitz league doing?" Mep asked.

"Terrible," Rikku grimaced. "We might have to form our own team to give the Psyches some competition."

Mep chuckled. "And what would we call it."

"The Truth Seekers," Rikku winked at him.

Mep laughed. "I like it."

He led her down a hall, over a thin bridge and to another lift, this time going downwards. They talked blitz ball all the way to the library.

Rikku sighed at all the shelves. So much knowledge and very few people seemed to care at all about it. Mep was one of the few who even knew how to find things on the shelves. No wonder Knowledge/Intellect/Reason had left the world. People were too busy trying to live long enough to have children to read or acquire knowledge. The Al Bhed did the best they could but even they were often hit by Sin.

She turned a sad smile to Mep. "And now this is where I ask you to trust me."

Mep met her eyes. "I have always trusted you, Guardian Rikku, even as you slid down a cable and interrupted a very important wedding."

"I need to know how the Aeons were created, the ceremony." Rikku said softly.

Mep blanched. "That is old knowledge."

"It's here, hidden among the other secrets." Rikku gestured at the shelves.

"It is." Mep nodded. "But the language is old and as far as I know, no one can read it. Those that could and knew how to create Aeons died or faded away with Sin's death. It wasn't something they wanted us mere underlings to learn."

Rikku sighed. "Well, I've learned Yevonite. I guess tackling an almost dead language can't be too hard." She looked up. "This is the least remodeled portion of the palace, correct?"

"Yes. There seemed no need to touch it. The walls as you can see are beautifully carved already." Mep gestured at them. "Though none know the meanings now a days."

"And the ceiling?" Rikku asked. It was much like the ceiling in the ruins, beautiful designs of glass and stone that let the light through to the floor and to the shelves.

"Original and it is a marvel. We can't reproduce that anymore."

"Oh, I'm sure with enough time and effort we could figure it out." Rikku told him. She craned her neck back and spun around. "It's mathematics and engineering mixed with art."

Mep watched her. "Are you trying to make yourself dizzy or break your neck?"

"Well, yesterday I had an adventure."

"Miss Paine and her mysterious notes," Mep said dryly.

"Yes, this was sort of after that. She accidentally pushed me off the top of the ruins we were exploring."

"What?" Mep barked.

"Oh, glad I'm not the only one who thinks that is hokum." Rikku murmured. "Anyways, I fell onto the roof much like the one in the library here and the ruins I found underneath the roof put some things into context. I'm just trying to orient myself with the roof and the rest of the building."

"You could have died." Mep stared at her aghast.

"Hazard of my life." Rikku looked down.

Mep shook his head. "And what did this put into context for you."

"Well, you know, after the old dragon, the machina powered temple, the big touchy machine and the ninety nine levels of monsters, I don't think this place has given up all its secrets." Rikku said voice light.

Mep sighed. "More secrets."

"This place is a warren. Some blueprints might help." Rikku wrinkled her nose.

"I've searched and to no avail."

Rikku spun on her toe. "That way, I think." She said and walked off.

Curious, Mep followed her. "If I may, what exactly are you hoping to find?"

"A lock."

"And do you have a key?"

"I have a key, but it's most likely not the same key." Rikku said. "But it should be related to the key I have. I don't think these were supposed to be deep secrets."

Mep rubbed the top of his head. "Then why lock them away."

"Because acolytes are dumb?" Rikku raised her eyebrows at him.

Mep laughed. "Point taken."

"I know if I was a child of a temple, I'd be searching every nook and cranny." Rikku sighed. "I did Home and I did have blueprints to the place. I thought Pops hid something from them. Never did find anything. Here we are." Rikku stopped and put her hands on the wall. "It's the same type of metal." Her brow furrowed. "But," she tilted her head and then looked down. "There." She said.

There was a smaller circle, similar to the one she'd found at the ruins on the floor. It was as highly detailed even if the wells were smaller, but the lines of the carving ran into the carving on the wall. She moved off of it and looked up at the ceiling.

Mep frowned. "That is a lock."

"Alchemical, related to the movement of the sun." Rikku said. "Once you know the formula, it's simple to calculate each time you want to get inside. But an acolyte would have to be really intelligent to figure it out without being taught the basics of alchemy."

Mep nodded as if he understood.

"Basically, it's a really simple way to make sure a lock can't be picked." Rikku said. "Or a physical key or set of spheres stolen."

"When you put it that way, I guess it makes sense."

"But then the key was forgotten or deliberately lost." Rikku waved a hand. "And except for the Al Bhed, who really studies Alchemy anymore?"

Mep made a face. "There might be some books."

"I'm going to borrow and copy them one of these days, I swear it."

Mep chuckled. "While you work here, I'll go track down that book about the Aeon ceremony and any ciphers we have of the language. It won't be much."

"Anything could be of help, Mep. Thank you." Rikku smiled at him.

"Truth is all we have and it binds us together." Mep said softly. He smiled and headed deeper into the shelves.

Rikku smiled after him and then bent her attention to the floor. She leaned down and drew the circle in her book and then the design on the wall. She made notations of the way it faced and then drew as best she could what she could see of the large ceiling. Frowning, she explored the wall finding more circles and symbols on the floor and wall spaced much further from the one she'd started with. She drew them as well, muttering in Al Bhed and writing notes.

She finally climbed one of the shelves, sat on top and drew the ceiling, marking how the sun would climb over it during the day. Then she drew the floor she could see from the shelf and all the different circles making more notations as she drew.

Whoever had built these doors had made it more difficult than the elevator at the ruins. These were meant to keep people out and were trickier. Rikku ended up sitting on the shelf with her chin in her hand, elbow resting on her knee as she watched the sun move across the floor for several hours. She sketched the curve of the dome versus the flat of the floor and how the light angled through it.

Her stomach rumbled.

Below Mep spoke up. "I've brought lunch. Take a break Rikku and let your mind idle."

"I think I've figured it out." Rikku called down. She climbed down instead of jumping. She didn't want to scare Mep.

Mep passed her a warm meat pie she could hold in her hands and a glass of dry wine. "Eat first." He told her.

Rikku grinned lopsidedly. "Right, thanks."

Mep snorted. "You think you're the first intellectual I've met. I swear that Maechen subsisted off of air."

"He probably did." Rikku said softly. He'd been a dead ghost walking, like Auron. Not that she wanted to tell Mep that, she didn't think his very few beliefs that he still held could handle the idea of walking spirits.

She took a bite of the pie. It was warm and the gravy was mildly spiced and the hunks of meat were accompanied by chopped up vegetables. The crust was flakey and melted in her mouth. "Mmm, if all temple food was this good." She murmured.

"It's the hunger talking." Mep teased.

Rikku grinned and licked her lips. "Maybe, or you've a better cook than you think. I've lived on much worse than this." She told him.

Mep snorted. "Because you Al Bhed don't know how to cook decent food."

"Our food is appropriately spiced." Rikku retorted.

"You can't taste anything because of the spices. And the alcohol you drink is no better than fermented cactus water."

"It is fermented cactus water."

Mep smirked. He'd known that. "All to cover up the fact your meat is rancid and your vegetables rotting."

She kicked his ankle. "Not so."

They finished the meal occasionally snickering. They licked fingers and wiped their faces with napkins before returning to the wall again.

"So," Mep stared at it. "You really think something is there."

"At least two rooms." Rikku nodded.

Mep shook his head. "All this time."

"This predates the Zanarkand War," Rikku stopped. "I think."

"What could be so important that they would deliberately forget it and not teach the later generations how to open it up to take part of the knowledge?" Mep curled his fists.

"Secrets and lies and truth," Rikku said softly.

"But why?" Mep's voice turned weak.

"Power, control," Rikku's lips twisted and she gestured at the library. "Very few know this place exists because Baralai won't let people who aren't still dedicated to Yevon in the smallest fashion into the temple. And most of those who followed Yevon, have never been to Bevelle. It's too dangerous. They don't know how big this place is or how much it holds. Nor do most of them care. Yevon comforted them. Yevon took care of them. Yevon gave them hope."

"And it was all lies." Mep hissed.

"You know that. I know that." Rikku smiled tightly. "But I'm Al Bhed. We were always cynics and questioners. It's why those who followed Yevon didn't like us. We used the machina openly and freely without Bevelle's blessing. We asked questions. We didn't believe the status quo or the propaganda when cycle after cycle after cycle, the last summon didn't work and Sin came back."

Mep's shoulders slumped.

"People are busy rebuilding their lives. When there is calm, true calm and true peace, perhaps they will start to look beyond their selves and see if there is more to be had in this world than food on the table, a solid roof and children to pass on their family line." Rikku shook her head.

"But this," her voice turned dark. "This was the great machina city of Bevelle who went to war with machina against the great machina city of Zanarkand defended by the Summoners. It was only after Yu Yevon slaughtered everyone in Zanarkand to create Sin that the forces of Bevelle, the forces that used machina against the Zanarkand warriors, were defeated. Then and only then did Bevelle, through Yunalesca turn to Summoning as a method of war against Sin. So, this is my question, this should be the question everyone associated with Yevon has. What came before the Aeons? What exactly where the Summoners of Zanarkand drawing upon to defend their city? What happened to those summons?"

Mep blanched.

"It was a pretty messed up war and the aftermath was worse." Rikku murmured. "It was only after Sin that Yevon became 'holy' and Bevelle became 'sacred.' Nothing from the spheres we sphere hunters have recovered around Spira has given me any answers." And she couldn't remember, not without giving up her mortality.

"But you aren't a summoner." Mep said. "Why is this so important to you?"

"Because without summons, summoners have no reason to exist." Rikku said. "And without summoners, we have no one to do the sendings. And without summoners doing the sendings, the fiends become more numerous and the Farplane weakens and Macalania Forest dies. Everything is connected."

Mep nodded. "All right then. How do you open this door?"

"Alchemy." Rikku said and stepped back. She looked up at the ceiling and then down at the floor, noted where the sun fell and did the calculations in her head. She pulled four items out of her pouch.

"Rikku!" Baralai bellowed from the lift where it touched down.

"He's back early." Rikku murmured.

Mep handed her the two books. "The Aeon ritual and the language primer." He said. "I'll go stall him. Good luck." He said.

Rikku felt her skin tingle again.

"Rikku! I don't know what you're doing here." Baralai shouted.

Mep smiled at her and hurried over to intercept him. "Praetor, how good to see you here in the library."

"I don't have time Brother Mep." Baralai said, frowning at him.

"You seem agitated, Praetor," Mep said soothingly. "Perhaps I may help you."

Rikku tucked the books under her arm and quickly put the items in the appropriate wells. She stepped back.

They went off, light filling the lines but this time the essences of the items joined together, hovered in place and then hit the center of the design in the wall. More light spread from it, along the spirals and curly ques of the design. The wall shook, dust rained down and the great door opened.

Rikku looked back over her shoulder. She nodded at Mep and stepped through the door.

It swung shut behind her.

Baralai hit it with a thud.

Rikku blew upwards and shifted her bangs. "That's not going to work," she sang.

Lights flickered on in the walls and overhead, pale blue. At the far end of the chamber stood a tall statue of a woman, stern and proud.

"Hello, Knowledge, fancy seeing you here." Rikku said.

The chamber was filled with shelves of books. At Knowledge's feet was a podium to place ones that people wanted to look at.

"No dust," Rikku murmured. "Air's clean and not stale." She sniffed. "Not bad for thousand year old technology that hasn't had any maintenance." She took a few steps forward. "Any fiends? Hello? Just a visitor. Hope you don't mind."

No fiends jumped out to attack her.

"Huh. Good." Rikku said and walked across the chamber. She placed Mep's books on the podium and turned around, leaning against it. She put her elbows up on the edges of the podium and crossed her ankles. "Well, well, well, what do we have here? Books. Books and more books. Would it be too much to ask for a few spheres in the mix? The spoken language hasn't shifted as much."

Her gut shifted. The thing was, she had no idea where to start. She'd told Mep at least two chambers because the locks on each side of the 'lift' were of different difficulties. She'd chosen the more difficult to decipher of the two types because she hoped there would be more restricted and thus more relevant information behind the most difficult door.

If not, well, she'd have to exit, knock out Baralai and whoever he'd summoned to help him detain her or whatever his plan was, and open the other door and go through the rigmarole again.

But, both Tromell and Mep had wished her luck. On her search for information no less. It was no small thing to wish the avatar of Fortune luck while on a quest. They'd even given her good luck. That had granted her power.

She summoned up that tingling feeling on her skin, holding out her hand, focusing it in the palm. Golden sparkles formed like a round ball of yarn in the palm of her hand. She narrowed her eyes and focused on the ball. No one else would be able to see it unless they were also Avatars of the Essentials. "Show me the most important information I need about the summons and their relationship to the magical planes." She told the golden glittering ball of magic. She'd learned over the years and over her lives to be specific.

Luck magic could be finicky. If she just asked her to show it what she needed, there was no telling what sort of information it might lead her to. It might not be what she needed right that moment, but years down the line or even lives. Right now, she didn't need to know three lives later that she was going to need to know the exact anatomy of a sand worm. Sure, it'd come in handy and actually saved that later life from being cut off before she'd completely that life's work. At the time, she'd needed a different set of information entirely. She couldn't remember what but she did remember in excruciating detail her annoyance and the anatomy of a sandworm.

There were some things she really never wanted to know.

The ball of magic quivered, then split into three and shot off, rolling out like balls of yarn into the shelves.

Rikku rubbed the palm with the thumb of her other hand trying to make the tingle go away. She straightened, uncrossing her ankles and followed the magical threads into the shelves. As soon as she picked up the book the thread led to, the magic to that book broke and faded away. She gathered all three books, the magic attached to her and not where she started, the threads contorting as she moved around the shelves.

She came back with her burdens to the podium and set them down.

She cracked all of the books open. The writing was archaic and similar to Al Bhed, just like the carved writing in the ruins. It made sense to her. The writing of Yevon hadn't come about until after the religion was founded. The shapes of the Yevonite writing pictographs based on the summons and fiends. It figured they'd have to come up with a new form of writing to justify their new religion and ostracizing those who used machina even more.

It was the Al Bhed that had clung to the old ways, the old language. Al Bhed had once been considered a sacred language. And her people had adopted it as their primary mode of communication when it became clear that the Yevonites were intent on casting them out or wiping them out. But it'd become a living language and strayed from its roots over time.

Rikku ran her finger along the bottom of the writing in the books. Yes. This was definitely similar to Al Bhed. Mep's primer would probably not be very helpful then. She almost felt like she could make it out.

Phantom memories she called them. Things almost forgotten that made her think she knew something when she really didn't.

Rikku paged through the books. She blanched at the illustrations in the book Mep had found for her about the Aeon ritual. The pictures were gruesome enough. She didn't know if she would be prepared for the actual words, the justification they used to kill the victims. She shut the book with a trembling hand.

The other books had less pictures, but some she recognized. The great phoenix was drawn in full beautiful colors across several pages that she had to unfold them in order to see the entire illustration. It was the symbol of her clan. She put a hand on it. Had the Al Bhed forgotten less than they thought?

She reached up and self-consciously tugged on the feathers at the ends of her braids. Orange feathers were the mark of those dedicated to the Phoenix. She'd been very small indeed when her mother, Gaia, had made an offering to the fires in Rikku's honor and she'd been accepted. An old ceremony, one her father had only allowed due to tradition.

Gaia's soft words spun through Rikku's mind. "If you open your heart to the warm fires of the Phoenix, she will always be there to protect and guide you, my little spark."

The softness of a downy feather against Rikku's skin as she played with it with all the curiosity of a young child. The toughness of the spine.

Rikku shook the memory away.

Summoners, they opened their hearts to the spirits of the Aeons, accepting them into their hearts. The same words, but Rikku had never thought that she could actually summon the Phoenix to help her in a literal sense.

No one in the Al Bhed believed that. The clan symbols gave you courage and were a source of pride.

But had they once been something more?

Maybe these books would have the answer. She carefully folded the illustration back up and continued to page through the book. There were more illustrations, Lightning's thunderbird, the horse of Metal, the coeurl of Wood, Ice's wendigo, the wolf of Earth, Water's leviathan and even Air's dragon.

She shut the books and stacked them together. There was something to be said about always being prepared. She switched weapon's spheres, to one with lots of belts. She unbuckled them and fashioned a carrier and harness. She slipped the harness over her shoulders and adjusted the books until they fell flat against her back and wouldn't fall out.

She needed time with these books and time at the ruins. She needed to decipher what exactly they were for and why the Essentials were in places of honor like the Yevonite's summoner statues.

Was that something else the Yevonites had twisted to their own ends?

Too many secrets. Too many lies.

Rikku turned and bowed her head to Knowledge. She and Knowledge had never been expressly friends, but they hadn't been enemies either. "May your sphere help me find the answers all of Spira needs," She told the statue.

She walked to the door and pressed a hand on it. Like the elevator in the ruins, it opened without any ceremony. The door was to keep people out, not to lock them in.

"Steady," Baralai said on the other side.

Rikku rolled her eyes, reached into her pouch and rolled a sleep grenade into the library.

It exploded in a cloud of dust.

She stepped out.

Baralai and a bunch of his soldiers lay flat on the floor, fast asleep. She shook her head.

Mep peeked around a shelf. "Did you find everything?"

"I hope so." Rikku said and smiled at him. "I'll keep you posted."

Mep adjusted his robe. "He's got the whole temple on alert."

Rikku smiled and cracked her neck. "Well, I guess I have a lovely tune in mind." She said.

Mep guided her to the lift and she stepped onto it. She looked down at him. "Take care of yourself."

"He thinks you've misled me with some Al Bhed chicanery. I let him think that." Mep smiled. "I am always your ally in our quest for truth, Guardian."

"Keep hope," She took his hand and squeezed. "And work on that blitz kick."

Mep laughed and squeezed back. "Good luck once more. I hope you find what you're searching for."

"If not, I'll be back. All the soldiers of New Yevon won't be able to keep me away." She promised. She let go of his hand.

The lift rose.

Rikku started to sing. And as she walked towards the door of the temple, priests, priestesses, acolytes and the soldiers of Yevon slumped over into a peaceful slumber.