Madness

Chapter Four – Galka Business

Crying Swan descended into the Quicksand caves, the light of his lantern flickering across the ancient stone walls. The Anticans peered quietly, their antennae twitching in the air, sending out their silent language. He soon found the room he sought and entered reverently.

They hung there above his head, undisturbed and lifeless. The dust lay heavily on their winding shrouds. The only movement around came from the Anticans who padded endlessly about the chambers and hall, and the occasional eruption of a worm through the sand.

Swan set down his lantern and leaned back against the wall of the chamber. "What were you trying to tell me?" he whispered to the mummies. "You scared me, and yet you said that I scared you."

An Antican wandered past him and peered into his face for a moment.

"Get lost," Swan huffed at it.

The Beastman moved on.

He stared up at the hanging graveyard a long time, hoping that Floria would forgive him for abandoning her like this. He could imagine her where he had left her, huddled up with her arms drawn in tightly, the hood of her tunic pulled up closely around her face. Images from their last adventure together flashed through his mind, when Velaulien had dragged the linkshell off to the shadow realm in the Northlands. There in a dimension of eternal night, they fought demons and their kin for what seemed days. At one point when the fighting grew fierce, he pulled back, provoking a couple of demons away from the main group. His armor and physique were able to hold up to the battering longer than anyone else's.

Then he felt healing magic surge through him, and he caught a glimpse of Floria, hands aloft, bright against the canyon wall. She kept him alive until the rest of the group could take out the demons...but at a cost. One of the brutes had suddenly run over to her and flung her against the icy rock. As soon as he could, Swan limped over to where she lay unconscious. Her eyes were closed tightly and her blood spattered the snow with crimson dots. His heart rolled in a wave of guilt and admiration, and then only love for her.

Delicately he picked her up and carried her over to a knot of resting mages, laying her back down amongst them like an oversized ragdoll. Carefully he chanted the reviving spell, and soon she was huddled up resting with the others. "I'm sorry," he apologized as he crouched to rest beside her. "I couldn't keep it's attention."

Her hand fell lightly upon his arm. And as if his skin were bare, not shielded by thick layers of metal and cloth, he could feel the warmth and devotion in her touch. No words were said. The next day he took five Ancient Beastcoins to the Goldsmithing Guild in Bastok, where he had them melted down and reforged into a gold ring set with the sparkling diamonds.

Footsteps sounded in the sand, more plodding than those of the Anticans. He looked toward the room's entrance, seeing the distinctive silhouette of a large and well-armored Galka against the light of the hall outside. The man walked slowly toward him, and as he entered the light of the lantern, Swan recognized a face he had not expected to see.

"Zeid!" Crying Swan fell to his knees in respect of the great Galka.

"I've been trying to find you for a while. You're the one they're whispering about in Bastok." His voice was slow and his words were spoken with much heaviness. "Get up."

Swan rose, wondering how long the other man had been there, and what was in store for him. Zeid only appeared when the news was important. And he flinched when Zeid stepped close and drew his finger across the Paladin's cheek. "Tears," he huffed.

"Forgive my weakness. Seeing our dead makes me sad."

Zeid turned and looked at the corpses hanging above them. "We rarely see our dead these days."

"Did the Anticans do this?"

Zeid shook his head. "You're standing on sacred ground. This area was once part of a temple of Altana. These mummies are at least six hundred years old. When our civilization was at its height, our dead did not go away on a journey of rebirth. Those ready to be reborn would be sealed away in the temple, where the light of Altana would come to them here. When the new child emerged, what was left of the discarded body would be wrapped in a shroud and lashed to the ceiling, had the body belonged to a magistrate. Warriors and workers were cremated in the burning ghat outside. Those you see here were once our leaders and administrators and priests."

The two stared silently for a long time at their ancestors, hanging like grisly cocoons above them.

"I have a warning for you, Doragg," Zeid said, breaking the contemplative silence.

"A warning?" Swan paused, and then sighed. "This is about my marriage, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Zeid, I mean no disrespect, but I made a decision and I intend to see it through. I know our union is unconventional, unorthodox if you want to call it. Physically we're incompatible and we're well aware of it. Floria and I would only be fooling ourselves if we thought somehow things would just work out. But this marriage is about love and devotion ...not about biology."

Zeid laughed grimly. "I see you've already worked on a defense. If only it were about biology. But that's not what has everyone on edge. Haven't you realized it yet? Your marriage reminds everyone of a fateful love long ago. That love between a Galka and a Hume woman almost destroyed the world, and it did change everything as we knew it."

The names of the fateful couple came to his lips. "Raogrimm and Cornelia..." he breathed timidly.

Crying Swan sat down in the sand. Why had he not even thought of it. No wonder Zeid had sought him out. "But it wasn't their fault!" he suddenly blurted. "If it hadn't been for Ulrich it never would have happened!"

"There will always be an Ulrich. There will always be a villain."

"But big deal! I'm not him and I know of at least two others that have married Hume women. There's no law against it. Did you go visit them with a scolding?"

"Doragg, the community looks up to you. You're a hero and an inspiration to them, and don't take this lightly or try to be modest about it. Even Gumbah thinks you're something special, and that's why he's so upset about it. He's the one that sent me to find you."

Zeid sat down in the sand next to him, and even more to Crying Swan's surprise, the great Dark Knight took his helmet off. His charcoal-grey hair was streaked with white and his face was much lined from many years of war and worry, giving him the look of undeserved age and wisdom. "I remember back when you were Doragg, the guy running the west conveyor belt in Palborough. Then the Great War came, and you joined the army. And after the war, you bought your own armor and took up the sword and became an adventurer. Even took a new name."

"You refuse to call me by it...you never have."

"To me, you will always be Doragg, because Raogrimm gave you that name, as he named me Zeid. If you were still Doragg, running that conveyor belt back in Palborough, no one would care about this marriage. But you're somebody now, a great man. Your name's even come up several times for inclusion in the Mythril Musketeers."

Crying Swan was stunned. "No one's told me. Seriously?"

"Seriously. And that's part of why everyone's drawing these parallels."

Swan felt defeated despite the good news. "Zeid...what do I do?"

After a long silence, he finally spoke. "I've never known a romantic relationship myself. I've only been an observer. I can still remember seeing Cornelia and Raogrimm kiss, and thinking how strange their affections were. And later when I found out that she'd given her life to save his, I decided that love was madness, but one so many people seek out." He paused. "Doragg, I'm not going to ask you to leave her, only to hear these warnings."

"I wouldn't leave her, even if you asked me to. Even if Gumbah told me to."

"Do you think she would do as Cornelia did? Would she sacrifice herself for you?"

Swan sighed in embarrassment. "I think she would. She tells me how much I mean to her, though she's never said it right out that she would die for me. I know I would give my life to save hers."

"You're both mad then."

He sighed wistfully. "Perhaps we are, but it's a wonderful madness."

And then Zeid smiled at him. "You have my respect, as little as I might agree with you," said the Dark Knight. "You are a great man, and that greatness comes with a price. But I think you have enough honor and self-confidence and inner strength to pay that price."

"That's high praise, coming from you." He took Zeid's hand and clasped it firmly. "I shall endeavor to never lose that praise."

Zeid rose and put his helmet back on. "Let's go kill some Anticans while we're down here, shall we?" He unsheathed his dreaded great sword.

And though they could not understand the language spoken by the two Galka, the nearby Anticans were suddenly eyeing the drawn weapon nervously.

* * *

Just before sunset Crying Swan and Zeid emerged from the labyrinthine ruins, covered in the foul blood and bile of their racial enemies. Floria ran to greet her husband as he came along the shadowy passageway, but stopped dead on seeing what a vile mess he and his companion were. "I brought you something," he grinned and tossed forth a bag of loot to her.

She peered into it briefly, and her eyes lit up at all the valuables he had come back with—scrolls and weapons and a few jewels. "I see you killed a few Anticans down there."

"Just a few that got in my way."

"You need a bath...badly."

Swan laughed heartily. "The Oasis of Garidav is just to the west. We can clean up there." He turned to Zeid. "Come with us. You can get to know the source of my madness."

Zeid shook his head. "Thank you, but I'll pass today."

Swan took his hand. "All right, but the invitation will always stand."

And the Dark Knight was gone in a swirl of purple light and black smoke.

Floria gathered up her things and they walked to the oasis, where she pushed her husband into the springs. As each piece of armor came off, she'd scrub it clean with handfuls of sand and a small cloth, and soon Swan was just sitting in waist-deep water in his loincloth, scouring his pale skin vigorously.

"You seem to be in a better mood now," Floria said, patting him dry with a towel when he emerged from the pools.

"Yes. Much better."

"Who was that other guy? He looked like Zeid." She paused. "That was Zeid, wasn't it? I don't mean to pry, but what was this all about?"

Swan shook his head. "Galka business. I'll tell you another time. Tonight I just want to hold you and kiss you and be glad you're mine. Let me listen to the beating of your heart."

"Darling," she smiled and pulled him close using the towel now draped over his shoulders..

He wrapped his arms around her and held on a long time, watching the stars begin to appear above them.

* * *

FFXI and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of SquareEnix. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.